You, Sir, are the one going off on tangents. I don’t see why I should defend positions that I never took in the first place.
The tangent that you went off on was racism in the U.S., explaining that we do not have the moral high ground on that issue, and therefore we should not be lecturing any other culture about how they conduct their genocides, or take things from neighboring countries, or destroy the planet. You claim that we must acknowledge our own faults before China will stop doing these things (or before we can demand that China stop doing these things). Absurd.
Actually, that is not what I said. I was originally criticizing your viewpoints on the situation... I was not necessarily criticizing the USA. In further discussion on why I disagreed with you, we invariably got into side conversations. At some point, you began insisting that I argued points that I did not, and also that tangential arguments were the main focus of our original discussion. I don’t see the point of continuing down this rabbit hole. To be clear, I did not say that the USA cannot or should not pursue its interests. My only point was that we cannot claim to be above reproach morally, while painting the other side as villainous. We have plenty of actions that can be criticized. Any other comments or assumptions you are making are your own. Do not apply them to me.
Going to work this into my podcast mix if the quality is good. And the recent edition of Foreign Affairs through 2 relatively long think pieces has been good. Can recommend
An interesting historical view of China and the Communist Party there: China Celebrates the Centenary of Communism, Wondering What Might Have Been
This is big, and surprising https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...a8debc-d9c2-11eb-bb9e-70fda8c37057_story.html
Because as explained therein, China has always felt they did not need a significant number of nuclear weapons to serve as an effective deterrent. The damage even their limited arsenal could inflict on an adversary was far more than anyone would risk. That is a fairly prevalent view in the nuclear world - Fred Kaplan showed how US Presidents back to JFK usually reached the same conclusion after Nuclear Posture Review briefing in "The Bomb", but maintained large arsenals due to internal politics. This move seems to be going towards a large arsenal that many thoughtful types view as unnecessary. China seems to be departing from their prior posture they have had for decades
Interesting piece. From With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa: Lady: "What useful thing did you learn in the Marines?" Sledge: "Lady, there was a killing war. Someone had to do the killing. The Marines taught me how to kill Japs and stay alive." My take is that I could care less what color or creed my military is made up of as long as they fight like wildcats for our country.
Could just be signalling...they may not be occupied by a missile at all. Or perhaps they know existing arsenal is inoperable.
Correct - Jeffrey Lewis (who helped discover the silos through open source), stated that it almost certainly will not be the case that each silo has a missile. Too early to tell. But still unlike them. The Brits are going with 4 boomers as one will always be on patrol
Another good article on China's Silk Road Initiative: Expert predicts failure as China eyes a move into Afghanistan: 'This is going to be fun to watch' Looks like as we move out of Afghanistan, the Chinese will move in. They will definitely be interested in the trillions of dollars of mineral wealth, but may be underestimating how difficult it is to extract the minerals. Another reason for Chinese investment is to prevent Islamic fundamentalists from providing assistance to the Uighyurs. It may not go so well for China, but it will be hard for China to walk away from its investment.
From “The Plot Again China” in the current issue, written by a Chinese official from their perspective During the past year, China’s confidence has been buoyed by a series of stark contrasts with the United States. By mid-May, the U.S. death toll from covid-19 was nearly 600,000, whereas China—with a far larger population—had lost fewer than 5,000, according to government figures. In recent years, the United States has supplied a steady drumbeat of stories about mass shootings, police brutality, and urban unrest—a degree of chaos and violence without parallel in China. And the controversy surrounding the 2020 U.S. presidential election, culmi- nating in the January 6 assault on the Capitol by rioters attempting to overturn Trump’s defeat, revealed a high degree of social and political instability in the United States, espe- cially compared with the order and predictability of the Chinese system. Against this backdrop, many Chinese analysts highlight the political dysfunc- tion, socioeconomic inequality, ethnic and racial divisions, and economic stagnation that plague the United States and other Western democracies. They also point out that many devel- oping countries and former socialist countries that emulated Western models after the Cold War are not in good shape, and they note how Af- ghanistan and Iraq, the two places where the United States has intervened most forcefully, continue to suffer from poverty, instability, and political violence. For all these reasons, many Chinese, especially the younger gen- eration, feel fully justified in meeting U.S. pressure with confidence and even a sense of defiant triumphalism.
That's some delusionary stuff. China is about to find out how difficult Afghanistan is, if they get involved with mining and building the Silk Road through there. We did better than the Soviets did, and probably better than the Chinese will. In the U.S., all citizens can have a voice in the political decisions of the day. In China, it would be wise for 99.99% of the population to NOT have a voice, or at least keep that voice quiet. I would seriously doubt China's 5,000 death toll from Covid. That sounds more like a fantasy. China is likely waiting before re-opening their borders to get the death toll down, so foreigners don't see the people dying in the hospitals and the incinerators running 24 hours a day to burn the bodies. China's vaccines are largely failures, causing them to bring in BioNTech vaccines by the hundred million. They will use them as booster shots to keep from admitting that their own vaccines were ineffective. 1.4 billion doses later, China is realizing it may need mRNA COVID vaccines Add in the problems with Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet, India, the Philippines, and the Ughyurs, and China has plenty of bad news to worry about.
I agree. Other pieces in the same issue pointed to their problems. But the editors commissioned two pieces from Chinese official think tank types to get their perspective. They are good reads to understand the mindset
Here’s the TofC. The first three pieces all detailed problems. Four and Five were from the Chinese perspective July/August 2021
The idea of China demanding to be treated as equals with countries like the U.S. seems to me to be similar to a burglar breaking into your house and stealing everything of value, then returning the next day wearing your watch and clothing and demanding to be treated as an equal in your social circles, maybe offering to sell your watch back to you.
Think it’s a bit more complex than that. But either way, it’s about power. Two things. Under the radar challenge. The Threatened retaliation over new sanctions. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/china-threatens-retaliation-after-us-slaps-sanctions-on-11-companies-over-human-rights-abuses-2020-07-21 Second, heard an interesting point about the bind many smaller nations feel. More than twice as many countries have China as their primary trading partner compared to US. They count on US for security and prefer US, but are economically linked to China. Economist podcast covered that
