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It sounds nice to say, the outside world should stand up to China. But what does that mean exactly? War? Nuclear war? Something that involves the threat of nucl
by lacker 6y ago
It sounds nice to say, the outside world should stand up to China. But what does that mean exactly? War? Nuclear war? Something that involves the threat of nuclear war? There just isn’t any obvious solution. Our era of nuclear deterrence means that self-sufficient nuclear countries can largely set their own internal policies.
IMO any change in China will come if and when the Chinese people themselves fight for it.
- mdorazio 6y agoThere are multiple possibilities that governments have refused to implement. Strong economic and trade sanctions, restrictions on China-based investment in foreign property and businesses, restrictions on businesses that do business with or setup factories in China, travel restrictions for Chinese nationals, etc. The fact that none of these have happened for the most part shows where the values of the rest of the world actually are - economics is more important than ethics.
- neilparikh 6y agoIt's funny because there was a policy that would been both restrictive on China, and made sense economically: the TPP. Unfortunately, populism took hold in the US, and globalism (and with it, the TPP) became the scapegoat.
- jimmaswell 6y ago> War? Nuclear war? Something that involves the threat of nuclear war? Those all sound like good options if sanctions etc. can't force a change. It was time to nip China in the bud a long time ago. Better late than never. And yes, I'd be willing to put my money where my mouth is and enlist.
- Trasmatta 6y agoSeriously? Nuclear war with China would probably end up devastating the entire planet. That is not the solution. It would just cause even more innocent people to suffer and die.
- jimmaswell 6y agoChina growing in power is incompatible with a free world. At some point we have to push back somehow. Taking HK and recognizing it as an independent nation would be a good start. What's your alternative, perpetual appeasement and turning a blind eye to everything they do? The economy used to be dependent on slave labor. The bandaid had to be ripped off at some point because it was wrong and the economy adjusted. The same has to be done for relations with the organ harvesting totalitarian gorilla in the room that we could all overpower if we came together.
- Trasmatta 6y ago> What's your alternative, perpetual appeasement and turning a blind eye to everything they do? Are you presenting a dichotomy where our only options are war (likely to be nuclear) or appeasement and turning a blind eye?
- jimmaswell 6y agoIf sanctions and diplomacy fail, what else is there?
- Trasmatta 6y agoI'm not even convinced that the US would win a direct war with China. It would certainly result in the sacrifice of probably 100s of millions of lives, if it became nuclear. I feel like MAD will continue to be a very powerful force in preventing a full scale war with China. (Unless there's an accident an unpredictable event, which is something that keeps me up at night.) Everything else needs to be tried before we jump into "let's have a full scale war with China, one that we can't even be sure of winning, and would likely end in life becoming much worse for both the average US and Chinese citizens". We've barely even started trying, so let's not just jump to the worst possible solution.
- ng12 6y agoOur only tool is economic policy. The elephant in the room is that the pro-Democracy West is actively funneling money to the PRC.
- mensetmanusman 6y agoSlowly start ramping taxes of products out of China. Same strategy to use when converting the world to EV. Not an overnight change.