The Americans are panicking over China, they have no idea what to do and are just making knee-jerk responses pretending they are doing something and looking ‘tough’ in the eyes of Americans. Yet what exactly can they do to a country that has 3 trillion US dollars in ‘spare change’ of your currency and holds US$759 billion in your treasury bills?
The fact is, just like the financial meltdown a while back, China will just use this opportunity to buy up even MORE of American manufacturing, invest in building more US manufacturing plants (using American slave labor wage workers) and soon the US will be nothing more than a branch plant country for Chinese corporations, all profits returning back to China.
Say what you will about China’s political system. At least it is much more of a meritocracy. The politicians who climb up the ranks are the ones who have a proven record of achievements.
In the US the people can elect a charlatan with no experience whatsoever, i.e. an outsider, and some will spin this as a good thing. Would you hire an outsider doctor or plumber?
Edit: since people are failing to understand the idea. Remember how Republicans mocked Obama for being a community organizer? Imagine the opposite, any president must have some demonstrable experience as a community organizer. It is not a panacea, Obama still committed war crimes and was beholden to moneyed interests but much much much more qualified than Trump could ever be. Merit doesn’t mean the person will be good but that they will be qualified.
There is just no way in hell that Xi Jinping (age 71 right now) keeps being the best option for China’s leadership for 10+ years under a meritocratic ideal.
He’s better than Trump obviously but so is a warm piece of cow shit.
Not sure whether Xi keeping the job is faltering of the CCP’s ideal of collective leadership, or him being the guy the collective leadership wants as figurehead. They certainly don’t want a second Mao that’s for sure.
The politbureau/party can still elect a new leader even if term limits are removed. There is democracy for “qualified voters” in China.
Very meritocratic… like there are literally zero women in the Politiburo
Are you implying that women aren’t smart enough to be in government?
Seems like sexism to me.
This is the same “Anti-DEI” bullshit that’s not that different from the current US administration.
Dude, fuck the CCP, just like because the GQP are turds doesn’t mean the CCP are the good guys
They didn’t say the CCP are good, they said they are competent.
Wait, based on what are you saying this? That’s a complicated to verify claim.
How is it a complicated to verify claim? Even if you choose to ignore the obvious outcomes, there’s plenty of publications and studies about it. That’s the problem with limiting yourself to “China experts” from the West, they never bother to learn the language or learn about China’s history and politics.
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-19-8057-2_23
In China all politicians including the premier start out as civil servants and a required to pass an entrance exam and have to climb up the ranks.
The US could probably adopt some of this without changing too much. A simple spelling test could have weeded out Trump. Ideally, a number of years of experience in civil service/local politics, should also be required to run for president.
It should be be implicitly obvious so it shouldn’t be explicitly stated. But we are simply comparing how the two systems position people of power. It is not about the people themselves in the positions. Think of it like a company that has its CEO climb up the ranks from an entry level employee vs a company that brings outsiders. Except the latter company leaves the decision to mostly an unqualified mass that sometimes hires a highly unqualified person. Both companies can be evil, or the former evil and the latter good, none of this matters to the point that I’m making.
Not really the CCP is basically using a reformed Mandarin system. To rise within the ranks of the party they look at a combination of how well the thing you administered (e.g. a state factory) performed in comparison to whatever is comparable, as well as opinion polls of the local population, which aside from making sure that you won’t be hated (which could cause disquiet and if there’s one thing the CCP doesn’t want then that’s that) also doubles at sniffing out manipulated numbers, the people are generally quite good at spotting corrupt officials. If you rank well within your cohort you get promoted from administering a factory to administering local industry, then regional, etc, etc. What doesn’t happen any more is grading people based on how good their poetry is as well as cutting off their balls but the basic system is, broad strokes, similar to how Imperial China educated and selected its civil servants.
That doesn’t mean that there’s not corruption and grift going on, there’s still some degree of princeling privilege but it’s basically impossible to fail upwards in the CCP. Knowing people or being someone’s kid might open some doors, but it’s not going to guarantee you anything. It also means that the top ranks are full of for lack of better characterisation engineer bureaucrats.
Or, put differently: If the CCP was completely incapable they would’ve long lost power. Their whole legitimacy hinges on being perceived as good administrators, they know that, and they’re doing their darnedest to not lose it. Propaganda and secret police alone is not sufficient, history has shown that again and again, you actually need to be good at stuff that’s important to people or they cease to tolerate you.
The politicians who climb up the ranks are the ones who have a proven record of achievements
I don’t know where you got that from.
At least it is much more of a meritocracy.
This isn’t at all true. It has the same corruption as everywhere else. Those in power do everything they can to keep it. Why do you think Pooh Bear got himself made president for life? That wasn’t on merit, he just had enough political power to make it that way.
He got up to the point that he can do that through merit. He didn’t suddenly get elected as premier. The point I’m trying to make went right past you. “I point to the stars, you look at my fingertips”.
This isn’t about Xi himself or Trump himself. Xi could be worse than Netanyahu, Trump could be better than Sinwar. It is about how those in power get there, how the system selects its leaders. I tried giving an analogy in my other comment.
I think Xi might have figured out Trump’s secret. He has no fucking clue what he’s doing. He scares people into reacting by being reckless, then claims a win for getting a reaction.
Ignoring trolls takes their power away.
“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
(“Quand l’ennemi fait un faux mouvement, il faut se garder de l’interrompre” --Napoleon)
https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-weak-strongman
Basically, this strategy Trump and Putin and their ilk do never works outside of their little bubble. Their whole game is to tear everyone else in their sphere of influence down to their level, so that they can compete effectively and dominate, but there are always significant threats outside of the sphere. Against which we are now more or less powerless.
They’re not really ignoring him though. They’ve discontinued exports of rare earth and are dumping debt. It’s a calculated strategic response to capitalise on an epic mistake.
This only works if you’re China. Most other countries would just be ignored
Not really, he backed down on tariffs last week thanks to Canada and Japan. The truth is, Trump has put the US into a very, very precarious position. They have a lot of debt to refinance soon, and if the rest of the world wanted to, they could dramatically increase the interest rates paid on that by coordinating a sell-off of US debt.
i would love to see that happen, but i don’t think they will
Putin has had trump’s number for years
“secret”
China discovers the secret to life:
Don’t feed the trolls.
never interrupt your enemy while he is fumbling his shit. or something.
I hope other leaders learn from this.
That’s business school from a guy who ran casinos into the ground. Nice work America.
It’s true. “Casinos,” plural. CASINOS PLURAL, EVERYBODY.
y’all are spelling ‘russian money laundering operations’ wrong.
Even worse. How does one bankrupt a Russian money laundering operation? You’d think they would do their best to keep that shit running.
I think they intentionally go out of business before the Feds have a chance to investigate it.
They were actually fined for undeclared foreign transactions, but it was during their bankruptcy so it got mostly ignored by history
And you’d certainly want to keep your American fence on a tight leash for the foreseeable
What?
Absolutely not. Bankruptcy proceedings get your financial records gone over with a fine tooth comb. You need to keep your cover business healthy within reason to fly under the radar. You didn’t see the mob casinos going bankrupt.
Nah, nah, nah, see “Russian money laundering operations” is the synonym for the hotels and university.
I thought the consensus was that was money laundering?
I found this https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/22/politics/trump-taj-mahal/index.html
So it’s at least alleged and they paid to settle. But wouldn’t you want to keep your laundry working? Idk
They probably figured out better ways to do it through Trump org and not have to subject themselves to casino regulator investigations.
Everyone is somehow missing China cutting off rare earth metals the US relies on for technology and defense
It wasn’t just stopping exports to the US, they’ve stopped exporting rare earth elements worldwide starting yesterday. Plus, they are starting to unload billion of debt we owe them. It’s almost as if Trump is intentionally trying to destroy our country in the morning, and then later in the day he wants to be the bully negotiator without understanding his precarious position.
You remember r/shitamericanssay? Last time he won, there were a lot of people talking about stuff Europe has but America doesn’t, and, if you browse the posts there, a lot of Americans responding how Europe is backwards, in the stone age, and what they do have is paid for by America, out of benevolence.
Well, those folks are in charge now.
Our EU ‘leaders’ are US bootlickers.
They’re a bit upset now that master is angry.The master isn’t angry, the master croaked, and his idiot son with anger issues is in charge now. The only question is if the EU will have the foresight to see the writing on the wall and bail before they’re caught in the undertow.
Like I said, our EU leaders are puppets, they don’t have our interests in mind.
They were perfectly fine with the slow death of seeing the economy and people suffer after the Nordstream US terrorist act.
Not a peep from them.
And even now they’re doing exactly what Trump wanted, spending more on useless killing toys.
And it’s a whole lot more.
Every country’s going to spend billions of money they don’t have and you know where they’re going to get it from.
The already unhappy lowest layer of the population.
Probably the last drop to push the extreme right in power. We’re almost in the 30’s again.“And even now they’re doing exactly what Trump wanted, spending more on useless killing toys.”
Useless? Russia invaded Ukraine. Putin won’t stop there.
To be honest, it doesn’t look like that one’s gonna be his decision to make.
That’s the spirit, of to the eastern front!
At least they seem to be buying domestic this time around. I mean, I fully expect them to Hillary it, despite everything, but it’s not impossible to pull out of the tailspin yet.
I LOLed at buying F-35’s but produced in Italy.
There wouldn’t be much point merely stopping export to the US because some other country could just on-sell to the US.
He really doesn’t understand his precarious position and the harm he has done and is doing.
That’s gonna tank the dollar hard
Yeah USD is down 3% for the week. 8 for the year
Sounds good to me
This is how the CoD storyline started.
I think the story here will go very differently now that the US army can’t ensure it’s exclusively pro-US.
the whole world actually, thanks Trump!
I’m realizing the structure of our supply chains is not common knowledge at all. Basically everything has a part from China. That and plastic.
Canada didn’t. It’d be a primary reason for the US to go stupid and try invading us, we’re a much closer source of rare earths.
Australia is the only other major exporter, apart from China, at 15% of global supply. I have never heard of Canada producing significant quantites?
Lot of discovery going on but not a lot of production yet but is estimated to be done of the largest reserves globally. The fact the minerals are here gives these idiots one more reason tokeep pushing this 51st rhetoric.
Oooo that’s good to know
Do nothing, win!
As much as I don’t like the Chinese government for all the censorship and etc, they do really know what they’re doing in terms of managing the economy and the infrastructure it relies on, as far as I can tell. Including their education system, it’s fairly shocking how many of the top engineering and CS colleges are in China.
Censorship? Its rich talking censorship in China when America is one of the most propagandized nations in existence. If I was China I would also censor the fuck out of America.
Censorship and propaganda are different
What a weird comment to make
Both are tools to control the narrative.
But you can just talk about censorship in America
There different forms of censorship. Flooding the dominant platforms with the official message to obscure opposition opinions, shadowbanning posts, etc are softer forms of censorship but are still censorship. The rulership class is fine with people voicing their opinions if they feel it doesn’t threaten their power. They will crack down harder when that feeling changes.
America has both, so wtf you on about?
And so does China? Both are bad, it doesn’t have to be either or.
Exactly, so reply to the ones acting like America doesnt, not me
How does the US being full of propaganda change the fact that China has a lot of censorship?
Both can be true at the same time, you know…
Its almost like hegemonies and individual freedoms can be at odds with each other no matter what country it is.
How does the US having propaganda mean they dont have censorship? America literally has a fuckton of both.
Right and so does China, there’s nothing to defend here.
Yes, he is acting like America doesnt have censorship
I was gonna post that one but “What is this business strategy called” gets me every time
It’s called not being an utter moron.
It turns out that maximizing for shareholder profit isn’t a sustainable way to run a business, and it actually burns your company to the ground after a few short years.
Also, not being an insufferable douche-nozzle.
I love how everyone just sort of glazes over how astoundingly unpopular Steam was when it was first introduced.
I was one of them. They proved my fears unfounded (so far). They’ve also managed to convert me to a fanboy at some point. I realised I was playing a co-op game brought off steam, on my steam deck, via a steam link to the TV, and the wife using a steam controller.
I think steam is my favorite monopoly.
^Not saying it’s perfect. Just my favorite. I understand this might change at any time^
At least it’s only a monopoly because everyone else is apparently idiots when it comes to long term planning. I’m dreading the day when they turn to the dark side. Long away may it be.
Valve is Augustus Caesar: a benevolent dictator doing great things for their people. I’m afraid of what will happen when Gaben retires, how long will it take before we find gaming’s Nero?
All powered by a nuclear reactor that produces steam
It was unpopular cause it was kinda ass tbh.
I remember getting so frustrated when the downloads would just stop for no reason.
The best next step:
China does nothing (keeps their tariffs)
That’s very possible. Trump gave them excuse to do this. They already set up a deal with Korea and Japan (and each two hate each other), and if they would set up a trade deal with EU then the US will be the only loser.
Trump really hurt US with the tariffs on everyone (except Russia, North Korea and Belarus)
best deal in the history of deals
Maybe ever…
I hope. I’ll miss my cheap goods but I have enough. I feel bad for young americans as cheap goods was one of the only perks left to living in this country.
Cheap gas I guess will be one of the last dominoes to fall. That, and the collapse of the petro-dollar system, will be the final nails in the coffin of our economy.
What a fucked up world where we are cheering on China. Fucking trump.
They both suck.
Predictable dictator is better than batshit crazy dictator.
Xi is more than happy to have a scapegoat for his economic troubles so the people and the powerful don’t hang him. Trump sometimes wants to speed run into the hanging and then realizes he really can’t piss off his own power base if he wants to keep his neck.
If they suck at each other, then that’s way less bad. Root for simultaneous knockout punches.
Red > orange
The workforce is unionizing even if their union is pretty terrible.
Definitely just a toss up of where this is going.
Which workforce? The Chinese? There’s only one union and it’s run by the government. Any non-government unions are illegal.
The US is gaining a new interest in unions, but we have our own anti-union laws to deal with. Not as bad China’s obviously.
such a socialist country where union protests lead you to being disappeared
Oh sorry, did I say socialist? China lines up better as a fascist economy.
Yeah in a global environment essentially China is the workforce/factory workers of the previous gilded age.
And it’s pretty much exactly my point that their union (the government) is finally pushing back against the management while being not exactly kind to their workers.
We are essentially reliving through a new worker rebellion but from the governments of the global south with their own layers of local nuance underneath that.
Weird times.A government is not a union.
The rebellion is mostly demographics. We are at a point, where globalization reached most countries. At the same time births are around 138million ± 5milliion since 40 years. China itself even has population decline.
Yeah in a global environment essentially China is the workforce/factory workers of the previous gilded age.
Maybe 15-20 years ago, but not so much anymore. Cost of labor has been rising in China dramatically to the point that a lot of manufacturing is leaving China.
Anti union in a socialist society…SMH sigh…
We need a vanguard party because the proles are too dumb to save themselves. We’ll prove it by banning unions that aren’t under our thumb.
Their wages are going up and young workers aren’t as interested in living the slave labor experience living in foxconn dorms working 100% of their time. It’s not a union but the overall effects are that policies are being forced to be more pro worker/ better salary and conditions just to meet staffing levels.
What moral high ground you think you had before?
And what, exactly, is wrong with cheering for China? They have never invaded a foreign sovereign nation in their entire 400 year history. They have been invaded by a lot of other countries, however.
The shart of the deal.
The shart that is too real
Art of the deal
Shart of the deal
Fart of the Seal.
You’re fucked when the other party has read it too.
I don’t think anyone needs to read his book up know he’s a fuck up. China doesn’t care how much we try and upset their apple cart, they aren’t going to play Trump’s game.
I was making a joke.
Yup. Donald Trump is a joke.
I don’t think you’ll find anyone in the fediverse that disagrees.
I found one hell bent on driving people to his side from the “no true Scotsman fallacy”.
china is well-versed in a different text, the art of war.
China hasn’t been involved in a war since its conflict with Vietnam in 1979, what are you talking about??
You say “too” here, but it’s doubtful that Trump has actually read his book.
He famously had it ghost written, but fucked up the deal hard enough that his ghost writer got full writing credit on the cover.
The Fart and The Squeal
Then everyone dumps on him, and he says the roll back was fake news and it’s still happening, but nobody even in the administration knows what’s going on.
but nobody even in the administration knows what’s going on.
“Least of all the horse.”
The horse… used the elevator? …I didn’t know he knew how to do that.
The Art of the Deal
Bankruptcy never tasted so good?
grift
Big flex from China. I’m waiting for a country to call trump’s bluff by putting an export tax on their own goods sent to the USA.
If only… America holds 20% of global purchasing power so an export tax like that would result in needing to lower local interest rates to boost domestic productivity, which would decrease foreign investment, eventually weakening the local currency.
It would be hilarious if a country that exports very little to nothing to the US did it to make a point though. Totally on board with that.
America
holdsheld 20% of global purchasing power…Truth be told, I think the only thing we really produced in the US was the US dollar. Sounds like it’s the number 1 export for the US, and trump just toppled demand for it.
Oh this makes so much sense, it really all boiled down to this.
China is already weakening their currency to keep their exports (worldwide) more attractive.
Canada should have done this on everything. If the Americans can afford the tariff then there is room for us to charge more. Not really but yeah should do it.
Or, they just pay the tariff themselves. Could you imagine China going, “Cool bro, we’ll just absorb the cost ourselves. Now what?”
I mean, that’s what trump said they would do. That would make him look like a genius.
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That wouldn’t really do much for China. The reason the tariffs hurt us is that we sent all our manufacturing to them (along with a few other countries). So the tariffs only make our stuff cost more. Footing the bill like that would just weaken China’s position.
What would happen is the US dollar would be weaker, profits selling to the US weakened. It would still harm us primarily.
Didn’t this happen last time? Less dramatically, but still.
He puts in a bunch of tariffs. China reciprocates. The market is thrown into chaos. He shouts and screams. China ignores him. He backtracks. China ends the tariffs but doesn’t do anything to try and appease him. He claims it’s a victory. His fluffers say the tariffs were just to bring China to the table, which justifies the hit to the market, despite the fact China didn’t come to the table and President Pigshit didn’t articulate what China could actually give him to end the tariffs.
Yes, but this time he also decided to tariff the whole world.
Fucking clown.🤡
‘hurrrr art of the deal’ Fucking. Clown.
