China isn't dumb, they saw what the US did to the USSR and anyone who else who was even the smallest possible threat to the US. And they knew how big of an actual potential threat they would become as they industrialized and hollowed out US manufacturing. And I think it is the right move on their part, surpass the US economically, let the US continuously drain its resources across the globe, and when the US is under pressure and decides China has too much control it will be too late and they can just starve the US out economically. The worst thing that can happen at this point to China is the US actually does build back a broad local manufacturing sector and reduces imports, but that still leaves China with a far larger domestic market. Every other potential outcome has China sitting in an even better position.
kashunstva · 4h ago
> as they industrialized and hollowed out US manufacturing
Just to be clear about cause and effect - during the long period of globalization, the U.S. chose to off-shore manufacturing, trading high availability/low cost for domestic production. Off course, China has been an active participant in that process; but the U.S. could have chosen otherwise. Much of the rhetoric from the current administration's leader in the U.S. implies that the U.S. has been victimized unwittingly by the process, which of course is entirely unfounded.
andrekandre · 1h ago
> implies that the U.S. has been victimized
it would be super easy to blame the industrialists who wanted to outsource at any cost (and still do, just not to china) but that wouldn't work because thats where the (campaign) money comes from
lvl155 · 5h ago
What did they do to the USSR? They collapsed all on their own. If China were on its way up, people will flock there to find opportunities (just as they did briefly following the financial crisis) but the exact opposite is happening. China had its shot but they timed it poorly.
AngryData · 4h ago
Besides the repeated sanctions and embargos, propaganda, proxy wars, and military dick waving contests?
I don't know how you can believe China is on anything except an upward trend right now. Many countries won't even let people buy Chinese cars because they are so far ahead of everyone else in cost and manufacturing efficiency and I don't know any industry where China can't match foreign companies in and compete against.
They are in a prime position right now in my opinion. All of their industries have major players in cutting edge technology, yet they still have more population to modernize and sell to domestically, and they supply half the world's manufacturing needs and do work in basically every sector. They have tons of foreign investments into infrastructure and mineral extraction to keep feeding themselves raw materials, they have all the processing equipment to convert raw materials into base materials, they have all the manufacturing to turn those base materials into pretty much any goods they want or need. They have highly educated people and education programs and schools, a robust government, a domestic population still fairly far away from dropping off a cliff like every western nation, they have a strong enough military to be secure against basically any nation outside of global nuclear war, and a populous that broadly supports their government. Outside of multiple chartoonish sized blunders I don't see any path for the near future that doesn't result in Chinese economic growth and increased global positioning and power.
lvl155 · 2h ago
Great, you can move there and I would wish you the best.
jrflowers · 3h ago
> What did they do to the USSR?
The answer to that is kind of, globally, the thing that defined the second half of the 20th century. Like I can’t think of a subject that has been covered in more detail than “what the US did to the USSR”. There are roughly infinity books about it.
You mean all those things the US did to stop the spread of communism which we now know definitely to be a giant dead-end. People make it sound like USSR and communism was so great and it only failed because of the US. This is like saying Intel failed because of Nvidia. No, Intel failed because they sucked all on their own.
Just feels like China has very little to do in this cold war right now. The US just funded a massive war against itself, that is absolutely going to suck up fantastic resources & deeply deeply weaken our nation.
AnimalMuppet · 2h ago
You know, I recently saw someone speculating that China would be ready for war in 2027 (as is their stated goal), but that they would go after Siberia rather than Taiwan. Taiwan is very risky (have to cross the strait, and who knows what the US will do?), but Siberia is more straightforward.
Well, if China is in fact thinking that, then China would love to keep the war in Ukraine going, because it weakens Russia.
1over137 · 3h ago
“our” nation?
jvanderbot · 3h ago
Is there a term for something that is correct and proper when OP says it but is trivially false and easily misinterpreted when stated back by a reply?
That's what this is.
dumbledoren · 6h ago
Could that be because the US think tanks and establishment mouthpieces published papers on how the US needed to destroy China to prevent it from becoming an economic competitor decades ago, and then started appointing people to the State Dept. to implement that plan?
Havoc · 3h ago
When you’re preparing to take on the #1 then yeah you prepare for a face off
akomtu · 5h ago
It's not really a revelation that war machine #1 has spent decades preparing for a war with war machine #2. That's the entire point of their existence: waging wars and preparing for wars.
Just to be clear about cause and effect - during the long period of globalization, the U.S. chose to off-shore manufacturing, trading high availability/low cost for domestic production. Off course, China has been an active participant in that process; but the U.S. could have chosen otherwise. Much of the rhetoric from the current administration's leader in the U.S. implies that the U.S. has been victimized unwittingly by the process, which of course is entirely unfounded.
I don't know how you can believe China is on anything except an upward trend right now. Many countries won't even let people buy Chinese cars because they are so far ahead of everyone else in cost and manufacturing efficiency and I don't know any industry where China can't match foreign companies in and compete against.
They are in a prime position right now in my opinion. All of their industries have major players in cutting edge technology, yet they still have more population to modernize and sell to domestically, and they supply half the world's manufacturing needs and do work in basically every sector. They have tons of foreign investments into infrastructure and mineral extraction to keep feeding themselves raw materials, they have all the processing equipment to convert raw materials into base materials, they have all the manufacturing to turn those base materials into pretty much any goods they want or need. They have highly educated people and education programs and schools, a robust government, a domestic population still fairly far away from dropping off a cliff like every western nation, they have a strong enough military to be secure against basically any nation outside of global nuclear war, and a populous that broadly supports their government. Outside of multiple chartoonish sized blunders I don't see any path for the near future that doesn't result in Chinese economic growth and increased global positioning and power.
The answer to that is kind of, globally, the thing that defined the second half of the 20th century. Like I can’t think of a subject that has been covered in more detail than “what the US did to the USSR”. There are roughly infinity books about it.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War
Just feels like China has very little to do in this cold war right now. The US just funded a massive war against itself, that is absolutely going to suck up fantastic resources & deeply deeply weaken our nation.
Well, if China is in fact thinking that, then China would love to keep the war in Ukraine going, because it weakens Russia.
That's what this is.