By Orikron, Source: X page
The Wall Street Journal reported in October that Washington’s directives to move manufacturing out of China and dethrone it as the world’s factory are not achieving their desired results. WSJ: “Exports from China’s central and western provinces are growing faster than exports from rival manufacturing destinations.”
Source: America’s empire is bankrupt – UnHerd
Let’s start with the basics. Roughly 5% of the human race currently live in the United States of America. That very small fraction of humanity, until quite recently, enjoyed about a third of the world’s energy resources and manufactured products and about a quarter of its raw materials. This didn’t happen because nobody else wanted these things, or because the US manufactured and sold something so enticing that the rest of the world eagerly handed over its wealth in exchange. It happened because, as the dominant nation, the US imposed unbalanced patterns of exchange on the rest of the world, and these funnelled a disproportionate share of the planet’s wealth to itself.
Source: Friends of Socialist China
French president Emmanuel Macron’s recent comments in Beijing that European countries should avoid “just being America’s followers” and “getting caught up in crises that are not ours” have attracted condemnation from the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (an international alliance of China hawks including Marco Rubio and Iain Duncan Smith), which accuses Macron of “appeasing” Beijing and failing to stand up for democracy.
Friends of Socialist China co-editor Carlos Martinez responded to IPAC’s vitriol in a brief interview with the Morning Star, pointing out that Macron’s comments are essentially a reiteration of the Gaullism that has oriented French foreign policy since the late 1950s. That France should pursue an independent foreign policy based on its own interests, rather than acting as a proxy of the US, is obviously reasonable. Instead of issuing hysterical condemnation of Macron, British politicians would be well advised to follow the example of seeking strategic autonomy and establishing a sensible distance from the US’s reckless New Cold War.
Source: GeoPoliticalEconomy.com by Ben Norton
Contents
Source: FMPRC, Feb. 20, 2023
Introduction
I. Political Hegemony—Throwing Its Weight Around
II. Military Hegemony—Wanton Use of Force
III. Economic Hegemony—Looting and Exploitation
IV. Technological Hegemony—Monopoly and Suppression
V. Cultural Hegemony—Spreading False Narratives
Source: Worldaffairs.blog by Chris Kanthan
In 2022, China was supposed to collapse. Remember the real estate crisis, banks going belly up, economy destroyed by zero-COVID policy, revolt and coup against Xi Jinping etc? I watch a lot of anti-China videos on YouTube. Many of them are quite fascinating, since they have information not available in mainstream media. However, they make two blunders. First, they only focus on negative stuff. Second, they extrapolate the negative news across time and space — that is, if one city has a problem for a week, the anti-China people turn that into a China-wide problem and a year-around problem. (Or worse, they repeat it for years and decades). This is why the regular audience of these “China collapse” news will be surprised to know that China had a record year in 2022. Here are some quick facts and stats:
Source: Worldaffairs.blog
The United States of America is suffering from a myriad of systemic problems that have been ignored for decades. Some of these endemic crises are now hard to sweep under the rug; and other explosive and intractable issues are just around the corner. The shocking fact is that the disease has metastasized into many areas of the society — politics, economy, infrastructure, healthcare, foreign policy, and even at individual level. The only glue that’s holding this deeply fractured monument is the status of US dollar as the preferred global currency, but that’s facing a bleak future as well due to the rise of a multipolar world.
Source: FMPRC, March 20, 2023
Contents
I. Preamble
II. American democracy in chronic ills
1. American democracy in further decline
2. Political polarization intensified by partisan fights
3. Money politics surged
4. “Freedom of speech” in name only
5. The judicial system blind to public opinion
6. Americans increasingly disillusioned with American democracy
III. The United States’ imposition of “democracy” has caused chaos around the world
1. Foreign policy held hostage by political polarization
2. Inciting confrontation and conflict in the name of democracy
3. Doubling down on unilateral sanctions
4. Undermining democracy in international relations
5. Foisting a trumped-up narrative of “democracy versus authoritarianism”
IV. Conclusion
“[Chinese] Students might memorize a couple of Confucius’ quotes, but that’s basically the extent of his [Confucius’] contemporary influence,” according to a self-styled Chinese History Expert, when theorizing that young Chinese people don’t seem to respect their elderly people at all.
