I worry that China wants to destroy Taiwan...not take it over. The prosperity of Taiwans free markets have to be an embarrassment to the CCP. And tearing things down is what communists are really, really good at doing well.
When people wonder why all of these “military aged” Chinese men are crossing the border they need to keep the key parts of this story in mind.
For a young 20-30 year old Chinese man there is virtually no future. The economy sucks for most people. There are very few women to meet, date, and marry. They are stuck caring for elderly, sick parents in backwater towns.
They are not coming here to “invade”. They are coming here out of desperation.
I am not supporting allowing them into the country at all. But if you look at who is coming here, it tells you what you need to know about China.
Pick a commodity, virtually anything, like electrical power, and then look it up on Wikipedia and see which country uses half, or close to half of the total world’s consumption...and no, it’s not the US.
And don’t fool yourselves by sticking your heads in the sand, like the US government has been doing (and many here) for the past 35 years - we have many ways to measure Chinese consumption that are TOTALLY INDEPENDENT of what China claims. For example, regarding electricity, we can count the power plants they have, and use satellite heat maps to verify their operation, and then look at Australian coal exports to China...just one example.
Again, we won’t defeat, or even hold our ground, against China if we keep sticking our heads into the sand.
We should help them by cutting off all commerce, canceling visas, and rescinding any already issued. Give Chinese 30 days to leave the US.
There are far fewer travelers - especially international visitors. Airports are nearly empty, unlike nearby Asian countries. The Chinese government did that to themselves with their ridiculously excessive COVID restrictions. Now those are completely lifted, but the damage is done.
Much of their current domestic business problems as mentioned in the article are due to Xi and his people thinking China was ready to function as an autarky in the wake of COVID. It clearly was not. International business pulled away strongly and now China is trying hard to woo them back again. They will eventually return, simply because the West worships Gaia and remains so hostile to manufacturing. But it will take time. In the meantime, a lot of low-quality Chinese factories and industries have closed permanently - just as many weaker businesses and restaurants in the US failed.
China remains, visibly, a very young country. I saw few people over 30. Talk of demographic decline is decades out and will have no real effect on the present nor on the major urban centers. Rural and girl-free farm villages are aging out of existence - but the larger cities will remain young and vibrant. This is by design.
Nobody talks about Taiwan. Nobody cares about Taiwan, other than Xi's people who try to keep domestic political supporters fired up. Nobody hates the USA, either. More than one told me they thought the USA and China should be great friends and allies, going forward.
Xi isn't going to live forever, so US diplomacy should be focused on solidifying relationships with and among China's neighbors and encouraging the redevelopment of trade with the next generation of Chinese leaders on more fair terms - not just signing quick deals to reward the Hunter Bidens of the world regardless of the eventual fallout. The Biden Administration clearly is not capable of this, but the return of a Trump Administration could look past Xi and work toward rebuilding a better bilateral relationship.
The piece focuses on a YouTube video from a source called China Observer ... The video contains dozens of examples of Chinese businessmen reciting terrible business conditions for manufacturing in China today.
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Writer obviously never watched the video. The video does not deal with “terrible business conditions for manufacturing”, but with the CCP move to shut down all low-end assembly manufacturing, to be replaced with Headquarters company, like Tokyo, New York, etc. I forget which video it was.
The China Observer
https://www.youtube.com/@ChinaObserver0/videos
Whenever I want to understand the future of a country’s economic, sociological and military impact on the rest of the world, I ask a tourist.