Posted on 05/27/2020 3:59:22 AM PDT by Kaslin
Is the U.S. up for a second Cold War -- this time with China?
What makes the question newly relevant is that Xi Jinping's China suddenly appears eager for a showdown with the United States for long-term supremacy in the Asia-Pacific and the world.
With the U.S. consumed by the coronavirus pandemic that has killed 100,000 Americans and crashed our economy to depths not seen since the Great Depression, China's dictator seems to be making his move.
At the Communist Party conclave this May, China announced that it was seizing control of Hong Kong's security. From now on, subversion, sedition, secession and foreign meddling within the city will be crushed.
Whatever sanctions the U.S. and its allies impose, there will be no free and independent Hong Kong.
"For an Ascendant China, Reining in Hong Kong Is Just the Start," is the headline over The New York Times story on China's new assertiveness.
"China's move to strip away another layer of Hong Kong's autonomy was not a rash impulse. It was a deliberate act, months in the making," writes reporter Steven Lee Myers. "It took into account the risks of international umbrage and reached the reasonable assumption that there would not be a significant geopolitical price to pay. ...
"With the world distracted by the pandemic's devastating toll, China has taken a series of aggressive steps in recent weeks to flex its economic, diplomatic and military muscle across the region.
"China's Coast Guard rammed and sank a fishing boat in disputed waters off Vietnam, and its ships swarmed an offshore oil rig operated by Malaysia. Beijing denounced the second inauguration of Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen, and pointedly dropped the word peaceful from its annual call for unification with the island democracy.
"Chinese troops squared off again last week with India's along their contentious border in the Himalayas."
To warnings that China is risking Cold War II, Beijing seems to be responding: If a Cold War with the United States is the price of securing our strategic interests and position in Asia and the world, bring it on.
Beijing has put the ball in America's court. What do we do now?
Consider the list of nations with which China has territorial quarrels that have lately produced military clashes.
Beijing claims Indian lands China has occupied since their 1962 war.
China claims virtually all the islets and reefs in the South China Sea and now uses naval vessels to deal with the rival claimants of Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Beijing asserts that Taiwan and all of its offshore islands in the East China Sea belong to China. While the Senkaku Islands have long been controlled by Japan, China claims these islands as well.
As for protests of the suppression of Tibetans and incarceration in concentration camps of Muslim Uighurs and Kazakhs, Beijing brushes them off.
Should the U.S. seek sanctions on China if it crushes the resistance in Hong Kong, how many U.S. allies would support those sanctions, when, for Australia, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, China, not America, is their largest market and trading partner?
How did we allow ourselves to get into this position where a lately backward China is suddenly a greater rival for global hegemony than was the Soviet Union of Josef Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev?
Said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ruefully this month:
"China's been ruled by a brutal, authoritarian regime, a communist regime since 1949. For several decades, we thought the regime would become more like us through trade, scientific exchanges, diplomatic outreach ... (but) that didn't happen.
"We greatly underestimated the degree to which Beijing is ideologically and politically hostile to free nations. The whole world is waking up to that fact."
Yet, the rising totalitarian power of China, even with its imperial ambitions undisguised, does not threaten the vital interests of the United States.
So, again, the question: If China is prepared for a Cold War II with the United States to establish its predominance, what are we prepared to do should China absorb Hong Kong and convert it into a second Shanghai?
What are we prepared to do if China puts new pressure on Taiwan and seizes offshore islands in the East China Sea, as she did in the South China Sea? Sanctions against Vladimir Putin's Russia to compel it to return Crimea and vacate eastern Ukraine have conspicuously failed.
Are we prepared to fight for any of the islands, none of which we claim and many of which we agree ultimately belong to Beijing?
The Chinese have stolen our intellectual property, coerced technology transfers from our businesses and sent spies posing as students into our universities to thieve our secrets.
Meanwhile, we allowed ourselves to become dependent on China for medicines and drugs vital to the health and the survival of millions of Americans.
Who did this to us? We did it to ourselves.
We did it to ourselves. no, our politicians did it to us while we were sleeping
we’re dealing with the virus and the economic crash
The average unemployed for the unemployed is 127 percent more than they were making.
1/5 are getting double what they were making.
40 percent of ALL jobs in the country paying 40,000 or less were lost. These aren’t jobs that are going to require a big amount of training or retraining.
So MANY workers can be back at work by autumn and the virus numbers are very much on the decline.
The market has Really bounced from 18,000 and my BIL, who’s worth about 100 million dollars (cheap as hell) starting buying around 19,000
He doesn’t see the old highs happening any time soon but he does see 23 to 26000 being the range.
China better not underestimate how quickly we can come back.
And neither the virus nor the layoffs are making our navy or air force any weaker at this point. The spread on some ships seems over and we are quire ready at sea.
China has lost all credibility with the people that matter...consumers. Doesn’t matter what WHO sayd or what EU head says.
They will lose a Cold War.
Yet, the rising totalitarian power of China, even with its imperial ambitions undisguised, does not threaten the vital interests of the United States.
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China has 149 aluminum smelters and is dumping aluminum on the world market in an attempt to capture it. US smelters are currently at a competitive disadvantage and could close, leaving the US dependent on China - DJT is working on it.
Alcoa sells ore into China so this wont be an easy fix.
Steel is also caught in the Chinese attempt to take over production
They do underestimate us, quite a bit. The world found out about the United States in WWII. And WWI. And even during the Civil War, our bloodiest war ever.
Americans are tough, gritty and do not bow down to anyone, Obama notwithstanding (his ridiculous bow to the Saudi King).
China has something surprising on the horizon. I just really think so.
Xi the Poo has got some surprises heading his way.
I had to go back and read to notice, this is Pat Buchanan.
Pat, China is becoming a huge threat.
Wake up.
Your right. They would lose a cold war and a hot one too. But now they see how easy it was to disrupt our economy and sow division with the virus. Now all they have to do is drop another virus bomb on us and kick back and watch the show. Our biggest threat are the Chicom sympathizers and stooges within our borders. They need to be exposed and ostracized.
And fast.
If another thing like this virus happens again and it is traced back to China, it should be considered an act of war
You can thank a Free Traitor™. Yes Republicans, many many of them, are also Free Traitors™.
Fixed it.
WE NEED PROTECTIVE TARIFFS AND WE NEED THEM NOW!!!!
What? Are we now going to throw "financial instruments" at the enemy?
NEWS FLASH TO YOU!!!
I refuse to vote for some some third party candidate that has absolutely no chance of getting elected.
Who elected the politicians?
We have an election in a few months,which candidate is kissing Chinas ass,by saying China is no threat,they are nice guys? Which candidates son got 1.5 billion from china?
News flash. The Republican Party will only be a 40% ( at best) until Free Traitors™ like you change your f’d up ways.
News flash. The Republican Party will only be a 40% ( at best) until Free Traitors™ like you change your f’d up ways.
My apologies for the above slam on Free Traitors™. It was meant for Kaslin not you.
As soon as Hong Kong is taken over by Chinese thugs, the city will lose all it's charm and power and become one more ugly cog in the commie machine.
Trump WAS, and still is, a third party nationalist candidate that stole your precious nomination. LOL!!! You global trash still hate him even though you wear ‘R’ jerseys.
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