China's policies have kept the global economy afloat. They've been operating for the last two years almost at normal, in stark contrast to the US and company.
And what a disgusting comment to make. Yes, how dare they stop producing goods for us to consume! Do you also discuss our obligations to the global economy like this? What is our comeuppance to be for our comically poor COVID policies reducing global demand?
This cartoonish narrative of malevolence really has to stop.
The redscare syle evildoer depiction of the Chinese is outlandish.
It's a racist, 19th century orientalist interpretation of international commerce and it still somehow dictates policy.
It's either that or some kind of utterly foolish protectionism, as if the Europeans and Asians don't have the industrial resources to box out the US for the global market.
That's just a matter of time. These brain damaged protectionist policies, far from preserving the hegemony, leads to its rapid decline just like it did with the European trading empires one by one as markets quickly worked around the hubris strangleholds enacted by the dominant seafaring nations who thought they had cornered a market.
There's simply no narrative where this is good policy unless your mission is to hasten the decline and dismantle of the American industrial state.
Edit: I'm not responding any more. There's obvious vote brigading by nativist revanchist trolls on this thread. Every reply from every user that isn't "but the Chinese are shifty thieves" goes into deep negatives.
Cool hobby, kids. Have a nice day, time only happens once.
Our lives in the US would be significantly worse if China did not exist, and if trade between our countries were cut off we would lose manufactured goods, machinery, and textiles. China on the other hand would lose food, ores and minerals, and fuel. More importantly for China, without the trade income from the US it would struggle to maintain import levels of all products including food from the rest of the world.
In November of 2022 Chinese leaders found the limit of their control over Chinese people, and were so worried about rebellions that they precipitously dismantled almost all covid protections. Data suggest this killed 2 million people after China had previously exhibited among the lowest covid fatality rates in the world.
The internal politics related to China’s recent economic decline remain very muted, for now. One of the causes of this slowdown is the increased focus on geopolitical competition at the expense of economic relationships with the rest of the world. At some point, further economic decline that also results in food shortages, would seriously test its internal political stability.
A rapid decline in quality of life would challenge the US political system, too, especially with democracy in the US looking less resilient than it did 20 years ago, but food security would be much less of an issue.
China is the second largest economy in the world, and at current growth rates, will be number one in about five years.
You can't put sanctions on them. The world economy would collapse if countries stopped allowing Chinese goods into their economies. We can't just retool overnight.
The reason they get away with their concentration camps is precisely for this reason. There is very little leverage the rest of us have to stop them.
The best the world can do is slowly twist the screws until they are less powerful. This is already happening. You can see some manufacturing is already moving out of China into other parts of Asia because the US is making small but steady changes on how goods from China can be consumed. This is the only option right now unfortunately.
It's really in America's best interest to cripple the Chinese economy, as well as other big competitors coughEU which is where these policies are coming from.
No, it is not in America's best interest to cripple the economies of its trading partners. That's absolutely absurd.
We needed to do this 10 years ago. If China doesn't open up their economy to us then we shouldn't open up ours to them. Otherwise in 50 years China will have ripped off all of our ideas sold them to a captive audience of 1 billion users, and then used that forced customer based as a springboard to compete on the global stage.
The same thing has happened with our manufacturing techniques that we outsourced to them and now look how that is kicking us in the ass. Globalism is great for a time, but eventually we need to maintain the infrastructure to actually build our own stuff, otherwise it's not sustainable.
I hate Trump, but unfortunately we needed someone like him to do this. I don't think any other politician would have done anything about this. Not sure how to feel about that.
You can embrace globalism without damaging your economy. You just have to choose to only deal with countries that play fairly. China does not play fairly and, as such, we should not do business with them.
- The global supply chain is inexorably tied to Chinese raw materials (eg. rare earths) and manufacturing.
- US and European employers are dependent on Chinese inputs for all manner of domestic jobs.
- Financial markets are dependent on Chinese overseas investment and repatriation flows.
Its simply too late. Any disorderly rebalancing of China's economic model is likely catastrophic on a global scale. If Ma's point is that we made our own bed and have to sleep in it - he's right. And none of this is to detract from @3pt14159 point because China has not demonstrated any interest in becoming a responsible global power/steward.
I don't agree that China is hurting the global economy in fact I think they are making the west richer by stealing from their own people. You can morally object to that, but whenever a country subsidizes exports they are improving the lot of foreigners at the expense of their own citizens.
It's unsustainable. Trump's broader trade policy is protectionist.
The US has become overly reliant on China, add on their Belt and Road Initiative, and we should be taking a more aggressive stance. Trade wont last forever with us and we will not have any industrial infrastructure left. this is trying to protect ourselves.
I find it funny half the US wants higher minimum wages and better standards of living here, but complain when prices go up for cheap stuff from China being made by near slave labor in oppressed conditions. I guess out of sight, out of mind.
China's strategy has now changed: they used exports to build massive growth in their economy, but they are now using their exports as a kind of economic weapon that can be used in much the same way that Amazon crushed their competitors by artificially lowering prices to put others out of business...then raising the prices once they were the only game in town. China is doing something similar by making their currency artificially cheap to boost exports and by subsidizing production. Developed nations are taking note and building up their own industries again that were largely decimated by offshoring. Without protectionism, Chinese companies will threaten domestic businesses that are critical to the functioning of our economy. China is trying to save its ailing economy by dangling ever-cheaper goods to the world, but the world should not fall for this ploy.
Must be nice to have access to the world’s biggest market. It baffles me that we don’t respond in kind to Chinese protectionism, that can’t be a good long term strategy.
The chilling effect that China is having in liberal democracies like ours is extremely disturbing.
We need our governments to do something about this. If Chinese companies want to do business here, we need our own businesses treated with the same ruleset in their country. We wouldn’t ban a Chinese corporation for a minor executive’s political speech. We have laws against it. (The first amendment protects non-citizens as well as citizens.)
China has been enjoying our markets but hasn’t been willing to extend the favor fully. We need a new trade agreement that demands equal treatment, or we should pull out of China and do business with friendlier countries instead.
Since when do I care what China thinks? Frankly, it wouldn't kill for global trade (where the west is concerned) to swing back 15-20 deg to more autonomy. To zero? Madness; just a correction.
The salad years of buying almost anything at Walmart, Tesco, Amazon for 15% less than what it'd cost from the west and taking that to the hoop as success are long gone.
The low fruit is increasingly picked for them too. They can't do cheap labor 24/7/365 forever just like we can't do cheap prices for ever. Eventually we'll both need to rebalance price, jobs, security, and so on.
And what a disgusting comment to make. Yes, how dare they stop producing goods for us to consume! Do you also discuss our obligations to the global economy like this? What is our comeuppance to be for our comically poor COVID policies reducing global demand?
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