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> The West gambled that economic prosperity would usher in an age of Chinese liberty, if not actual democracy, and that attempts to resist that would lead to ec

by deogeo 7y ago

> The West gambled that economic prosperity would usher in an age of Chinese liberty, if not actual democracy, and that attempts to resist that would lead to economic collapse. I'm sure the corporations that make those trade agreements saw it as nothing more than cheap labor and large market. How this would help liberty is just something they tacked on to sell it to the public.

roenxi 7y ago
The 5 eyes are a totally disproportionate amount of the worlds military spending. They have a lot of faults, but they also look a long way into the future to spot potential threats. America has been implementing a worldwide strategy against Russia for a very long time. If you look at a map US allies make a nice little fence around Russia. It seems unlikely that trade agreements are being made with gay abandon and no consideration for the geopolitical situation. People like to pretend that there isn't a scheme afoot, but that is a ruse. Integrating with China would have been given extensive consideration beyond "cheap goods, aye?".
- deogeo 7y ago
  All the massive five-eyes apparatus does you no good if the people supposed to act on that intelligence are corrupted, and look to their own interests first: https://www.jonathanpollard.org/1998/040798b.htm https://www.jonathanpollard.org/1998/040798b.htm https://www.amazon.com/Deception-Clinton-America-Chinese-Military/dp/0976116804 https://www.amazon.com/Deception-Clinton-America-Chinese-Mil... https://www.businessinsider.de/china-acquiring-military-secrets-2016-6 https://www.businessinsider.de/china-acquiring-military-secr... https://nypost.com/2019/05/11/the-troubling-reason-why-biden-is-so-soft-on-china/ https://nypost.com/2019/05/11/the-troubling-reason-why-biden...
  - kipchak 7y ago
    I wonder if it's a bit of a race between how much you can spend versus how much you loose to corruption, like filling a barrel with holes in it by adding water faster. Supposedly the US's classified intelligence program budget is 81.1 billion, larger than 9 of the next top ten foreign nation's total military expenditures. https://sipri.org/sites/default/files/2019-04/fs_1904_milex_2018_0.pdf https://sipri.org/sites/default/files/2019-04/fs_1904_milex_...

by deogeo 7y ago

roenxi 7y ago

The 5 eyes are a totally disproportionate amount of the worlds military spending. They have a lot of faults, but they also look a long way into the future to spot potential threats. America has been implementing a worldwide strategy against Russia for a very long time. If you look at a map US allies make a nice little fence around Russia. It seems unlikely that trade agreements are being made with gay abandon and no consideration for the geopolitical situation. People like to pretend that there isn't a scheme afoot, but that is a ruse. Integrating with China would have been given extensive consideration beyond "cheap goods, aye?".

deogeo 7y ago
All the massive five-eyes apparatus does you no good if the people supposed to act on that intelligence are corrupted, and look to their own interests first: https://www.jonathanpollard.org/1998/040798b.htm https://www.jonathanpollard.org/1998/040798b.htm https://www.amazon.com/Deception-Clinton-America-Chinese-Military/dp/0976116804 https://www.amazon.com/Deception-Clinton-America-Chinese-Mil... https://www.businessinsider.de/china-acquiring-military-secrets-2016-6 https://www.businessinsider.de/china-acquiring-military-secr... https://nypost.com/2019/05/11/the-troubling-reason-why-biden-is-so-soft-on-china/ https://nypost.com/2019/05/11/the-troubling-reason-why-biden...
- kipchak 7y ago
  I wonder if it's a bit of a race between how much you can spend versus how much you loose to corruption, like filling a barrel with holes in it by adding water faster. Supposedly the US's classified intelligence program budget is 81.1 billion, larger than 9 of the next top ten foreign nation's total military expenditures. https://sipri.org/sites/default/files/2019-04/fs_1904_milex_2018_0.pdf https://sipri.org/sites/default/files/2019-04/fs_1904_milex_...