Samm
101
Perhaps you haven’t noticed, those are one in the same.
Gaius
102
At the risk of over-simplifying:
Think of China a little like Iran
In Iran there are 2 sometimes cooperative competing wings
Faction 1) Mullah types who care only about their ideology, things like nukes oil money are just two ways to back it up.
. . . . and
Faction 2) oil men who care about nothing except making money and exporting oil. They’d just as soon be rid of the mullahs, but revolutions are bad for business and they sometimes get one killed.
If there were a worldwide vacuum-sealed sanctions on Iran tomorrow, the oil men would be destroyed, but
it would not bother the mullahs much.
It would remove the oil men but leave the mullahs unaffected
The mullahs would think and say “Islam is not about the money. I recommend Islam for poor people and poor countries too”
They think. “Given a choice between God and money I will choose God every time. Besides it is not my ideology that made us poor. The God-haters made us poor.”
China is a little like that.
It has multiple factions and the bad-guy faction comes right out of the ranks of Hitler and Tojo.
The Chinese bad guys do not think of Hitler as evil. They think of him as an historical figure, (the way we think of Napoleon.) Neither Hitler nor Tojo would have changed their desires if the world cut off all trade. Neither were their plans contingent upon maintaining trade ties while they went to war.
Doing -NO- business with China does not hurt the bad guys much, but it completely destroys the only other viable faction.
Gaius
103
On a related noted
The Chinese economy may be collapsing, in fact it is, it’s just a question of when and how thoroughly
Hence the mindless striving of the libs’ greenie weenie dreams of a “renewable energy” utopia.
Components manufactured in cheap labor shops run by the ChiComs owned in part by retired US Congress persons family members.
American families unable to afford fuel and food get to do what again?
zantax
105
Rather remarkable how that story is being ignored.
2 Likes
Zander
106
I agree. We should be reveling in the schadenfreude.
Gaius
107
We DO get to say “I told ya so.”
Samm
108
Picture of China’s collapsing economy …
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Samm
110
Ed Markey struggling to stay relevant …
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Gaius
111
I am 100% in favor of the Congressmen going.
Congressmen go there all the time. I believe Taiwan has long been, by population, a disproportionally favorite Congressional destination.
But what I support is no change. No change one way or the other.
I wonder, is the fact that this visit is getting media coverage because the media is more interested or is it some sort of change to an “in your face” policy.
The little dog barks but the car just keeps driving.
1 Like
Too many influential people in the US along with some in positions of power make millions off of China. There’s no way we cut them off any time soon.
2 Likes
Exactly. The Biden Cartel comes to mind…
2 Likes
Gaius
114
As a general rule
For every short-term dollar a person can make in China,
a short term dollar can be made by a competitor if that person/business does badly.
So I tend to be dismissive of such allegations.
EX.1 In ten seconds a stock trader can switch from owning YINN (a Bullish China etf) to YANG (a bearish China etf)
EX.2 Everyone who has a sneaker factory in China, has competitors with factories in India, Mexico an Pakistan.
There are exceptions, if course, but in general “Rich people control US government policy”
is a bunch of Marxist crap. You’re too smart to fall for that.
WuWei
115
Another billion bites the dust.

counter measures by China… is China going to “sell” arms to a country we are about to invade?
Oryx
117
According to your link it’s a sale, not a gift.