Posted on 09/10/2020 7:56:07 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Nice summary. Trump's name did not come up but his fingerprints are all over this. What we're seeing here is the largest manufacturing nation in the world attempting to flex its muscles as a consumer nation. That, given the ongoing (and inevitable) diaspora of manufacturing to everywhere from Malaysia to Lesotho, may well be in its long term interest but we're talking decades there - or are we? Because China has discovered what it means for a manufacturing nation to be so dependent on oil producers, where the role between manufacturing customer and producer is now switched. For now the effect is blunted by the fact that low oil prices are in China's interest but it is clear that they are not under its control, and for an autocratic government that is threatening indeed. And all the while looms Trump, with his hands on the controls of both, albeit to a limited (but very significant) degree. China would love to attain that position if only for its independence. And that may be, at least partially, what this is all about.
Prior to WW2, we embargoed Japan from scrap metal and oil because of their brutality in China. As a result Japan, with no such resources of her own, was facing economic calamity. This, at least in part, precipitated Pearl Harbor.
We are not embargoing the PRC, but we are pressuring it economically and their economy is not nearly as robust as they project.
Will they attack us? Depends. China has a lot more resources to draw upon. But it pays to remember December 07, 1941, whenever you pressure a country that thinks it is your peer.
Many questions w/o answers in this speculative column. If the race to hoard commodities over to the China side is any indication, the above quote from near the end of the article could loom significant.
If the long reign of the USD is now in jeopardy it would be because the $30T national debt is never going to be paid, in which case confidence in the USD as the world's go-to currency could evaporate overnight in a great cascade. The chicoms have long endeavored to undermine it in favor of their own yuan.
Maybe..
But they’ve been stock-piling food and medicine for about a year.
They even own food processing plants in the US and all of it gets shipped to mainland China to be stored in cold storage freezer warehouses.
We should be doing it too. It’s monetary policy.
To me, the longer we wait, the stronger China is going to become. Better to force them to be openly aggressive than allow them to slowly gain geostrategic advantage. Right now, a US blockade would mean China gets nothing in or out by sea, bringing its economy to a halt and producing serious food shortages. There simply isn't enough rail capacity to make it up. The CCP would probably respond with missile attacks on US bases in the Asia/Pacific and probably massive cyber attacks on US business and infrastructure. They could also prompt the Norks to try some BS, in which case turning NK into a glass parking lot would be a good idea. Right now they have managed to alienate everyone around them, and neighbors like India might find this a good opportunity to dogpile on the Chinese.
Dollar hegemony won't end because it cannot: no other currency bloc will allow the enormous trade deficits need to become a reserve currency, and the political risk with China vis a vis the yuan is so insanely high that no one would accept it as a long term reserve.
Germany's and China's exports would also tank-- right now the ECB is worried about a collapse in German exports driven by a rise in the Euro vs. the dollar.
Stop funding communists, i.e., Red China!!!!!!!!!
It’s hard to believe DC has allowed China to dominate US government and institutions for decades now.
Bring USA production for USAians back from China and everywhere else.
Huge swathes of US citizens who use to build USA products, live in ghettos, like Detroit. What kind of evil wrought this destruction upon our cities?
Buy USA. Give your neighbor a job.
We affectionately call them Free Traitors™.
Who the hell is talking about a blockade?
Blockading the PRC is an act of war. We are not nearly to that state yet.
Japan was not blockaded - it was embargoed. Nobody in the US was allowed to sell them scrap metal or oil. Japan didn’t have metal ore or oil so that threatened to destroy their economy. Their options were to change policy or find other sources.
You ignorantly, from under your isolationist rock, violate the trade mark law repeatedly and call American businessmen Free Traitors.
The business of America is business.
Your comments are well-reasoned. Thanks.
American businessmen are not all Free Traitors™. Free Traitors™ are a small subset and need to be crushed.
> The business of America is business.
Ahh .. a “movement” conservative globalist shill.
Not many of you left!
Have a nice day!
There is no apology to mere wage earning Bourgeoisie for being a successful businessman trading over much of the world
America was founded on world trade.
No one is talking about a blockade at the moment, but that seems to me to be exactly the possibility the CCP has in mind if it is stockpiling. Same as Japan in 1941.
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