Posted on 06/29/2022 7:20:39 AM PDT by SpeedyInTexas
The conflict in Ukraine is driving a modernization of NATO weaponry, honing the alliance’s ability to face off against Russia and adding to the list of unintended consequences from Moscow’s invasion of its smaller neighbor.
Former East Bloc NATO members have been arming Ukraine with Soviet-designed equipment similar to Kyiv’s existing gear.
That has permitted a military housecleaning of their own arsenals on a scale that would have been unimaginable months ago. In turn, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will help its eastern members replace those arms with newer ones, greatly improving efficiency.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Of course it us, when some 330 million smartphones are sold in Chinacevr5y year, nearly dwarfing the entire US population, and only a fraction of that is sold in America every year.
China dominates the smartphone market both from the number of phones they make and the number of phones sold there and the infrastructure and factories and technologies needed to make them. And the fastest growing markets are in Asia and Africa.
Domestic markets can make a country an economic power when you have a population of a massive 1.4 billion and have by far the world's biggest car market, mart phones market, HDTV market, meat market and the biggest market for almost everything else. The days when the Chinese had to sell to America to survive are long gone.
Yeah?
What raw materials are those then?
You may want to look at the raw materials needed to make batteries for Electric vehicles etc and check out China's huge market share. Plus China's huge market share of EV battery manufacturing.
“What raw materials are those then?”
Well, you know, economic statistics like that are available with a couple punches on your keyboard:
“The top imports of China are Crude Petroleum ($150B), Integrated Circuits ($144B), Iron Ore ($99B), Cars ($42B), and Soybeans ($37.4B), importing mostly from Japan ($133B), South Korea ($131B), United States ($122B), Germany ($106B), and Chinese Taipei ($104B).”
https://oec.world/en/profile/country/chn
“Domestic markets can make a country an economic power when you have a population of a massive 1.4 billion...”
Not really. There is an essential difference between domestic industries selling to a domestic market vs selling to international markets. Selling domestically is just shuffling the wealth you produce around your own economy, which is good, but it isn’t as good for your economy as taking wealth from another country’s economy and injecting it into yours. Also, you only have one domestic market, while selling internationally gives you access to many markets, thus more demand, which equals higher prices and profits.
And of course, to sell domestically, your people must actually have money to buy the goods you are producing, which the Chinese people wouldn’t have without Western companies paying their salaries. Certainly the Communist run native companies are not going to pick up that slack if they cut ties to the West.
“when some 330 million smartphones are sold in Chinacevr5y year”
Sold to the emerging Chinese middle class who can afford to buy them because Western companies are paying them more than they used to earn farming. Western companies leave and they are back to farming and no smart phones.
“And the fastest growing markets are in Asia and Africa. “
Let me tell you a secret. “Fastest growing markets” is a synonym for “less wealthy markets”.
Yes, really
There is an essential difference between domestic industries selling to a domestic market vs selling to international markets. Selling domestically is just shuffling the wealth you produce around your own economy, which is good, but it isn't as good for your economy as taking wealth from another country's economy and injecting it into yours
If that were the case, America would be one of the poorest countries on the planet since we've run massive trade deficits for DECADES and continue to do so today.
I don't even remember the last time we had a trade surplus. We keep importing vast quantities of goods from countries like China and exporting little to them in return.
I think you misunderstood my point.
The last foreign adventure the USA got involved in that had international approval was the first Gulf War.
Everything since has been a weird mix of ideological battles and low hanging fruit.
Like if you look at Gulf War 2, kicking taleban ass and wrecking Iraq despite neither of them having as significant a role in 9/11 than Saudi Arabia.
That’s done immense reputational damage to the USA. No news yhere. What is news, though, isChina and Russia have been watching that pattern with interest and now think, America is too scared to attack a “prooer” enemy so keeps going after the easier pickings.
I could be wrong. So in the spirit of sportsmanship, I’ll make a wager...
Before the year is out, both Saudi Arabia and Iran will be in BRICS, Lebanon and Jordan will be firmly on the fence and considering their applications, and Israel will be fending off missiles from at least two directions.
Why? Because China and Russia think of BRICS as a better club with a better nuclear umbrella... and it’s the place to be for ethnonationalist states with a bad case of war fever.
They’re counting on America being either too scared or too poor to continue shielding NATO in Europe.
I did misunderstand you. Thank you for the clarification.
China is currently importing more and increasing amounts of their crude from Russia not America.
America is too busy begging Venezuela and the Saudis to sell us oil as it is.
And the $122 Billion in imports from the US is totally trumped by huge Chinese exports to the US.
Your idea of how the Chinese economy works is rather quaint. Chuckle.
For your information most of the smartphones, electric cars, HDTVs etc etc sold in China are manufactured by Chinese companies.
China is far ahead of the US in electric cars for example, with over 13% of cars in China being EVs as compared to 3% in the US.
And there are more EV startups actually making EVs in China than the US.
“Your idea of how the Chinese economy works is rather quaint. Chuckle.”
Says the guy who thinks China becoming a hermit economy would make them more prosperous :D
The actual Chinese, on the other hand, just have to look at their neighbor North Korea to see how that works in reality.
Fastest growing markets means they came late to the smartphone market and are racing to catch up.
Everybody wants a smartphone and they are pretty cheap these days.
“China is currently importing more and increasing amounts of their crude from Russia not America.”
Crude’s only one of their imports. They can’t import all they need from Russia because Russia doesn’t produce it all.
“America is too busy begging Venezuela and the Saudis to sell us oil as it is.”
Only temporarily until we get rid of Biden.
“And the $122 Billion in imports from the US is totally trumped by huge Chinese exports to the US.”
You forget to mention that ALL of China’s top 5 import trade partners are part of the greater Western alliance. So it’s not just $122 Billion we are talking about. Their total imports are actually about 80% of their exports, so they are net exporters, but since they are mainly importing raw materials and components needed to fuel their production, once they cut off those imports, their exports necessarily will stop as well.
That scenario is no longer the case.
Most of the smartphones sold in China are manufactured by Chinese companies like Xaomi, Oppo, Viva etc etc.
Russia “doesn't produce it at all”?
Since when?
Russia can pretty much supply a big chunk of China's oil imports if they cut off the dopey Europeans.
You’re right on your assessment. And the NATO expansion is token in comparison to what China and Russia are doing for their buildup. NATO will still be 10% of Cold War levels, amd less than what it was in 2005.
To be honest I’m not that convinced the size of the force is an issue; what matters more will be based on how rapidly we can build on what we’ve learnt from Russia’s Special Military Operation:
1. Rapid reaction tactical forces to hit a land invasion where it hurts - emphasis on “rapid”. But these groups need to be hard as nails, and highly professional. If the invaded region has to rely on civilian call-up, then the invader has the upper hand.
2. New ways to interrupt the supply lines for an invasion force - a well kitted out drone with EMP would frag the enemy comms.
3. Drones and UAVs. Why put boots on the ground when a cheap bit of expendable kit can put a laser marker on a target without even being spotted?
4. Countermeasures, and retaliatory capability, to hit all forms of artillery.
5. Air support. Lots of it.
6. Propaganda - the worst thing about this war is Russia being able to wall off their own people, to the extent that they can pump out 24/7 propaganda on the internet, national television and radio without people having access to other sources of information.
7. Decentralised energy and telecoms supply chains. It’s far more difficult to knock out the infrastructure if it’s higly mobile and highly distributed.
8. A willingness to launch counterstrikes that scare the pants out of the invading nation. There’s no point just grinding down their troops if the message isn’t getting to the genpop. Plop a bunker busting non-nuclear rocket onto the roof of Putin’s country retreat, ideally via a hypersonic that Russia doesn’t even think we have.
9. Don’t broadcast the locations and tactics to the enemy. I seriously can’t believe how many times that’s screwed things up for both sides - the best one being when the Russian tiktok loonies posted a brag about their awesome new launcher, only for the Ukes to see it, geolocate it, and take it out in less than 24 hours.
An awful lot of this is down to savvy use of comms.
It took over 2 months for Russia to take control over mobile comms even in the areas they do hold, and even then they can’t block all social media. So it’s very difficult to control the narrative without hurting their own communication lines.
If the Ukes had had the ability to take that very long convoy out comprehensively before it was half a day into Ukraine, while Russians still had the internet, Putin’s censors would’ve had a right tough job denying it.
Threatening to nuke Russia if they step foot onto NATO territory works just as well. Same goes for China on Taiwan and North Korea on South Korea.
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