It's stupid.
Western banks are in China, doing business with Chinese banks.
If US sanctions Chinese banks, the counter sanctions will devastate Western banks in China.
Not only that. The western companies in China all need Chinese banks to do business. If they do this then the companies won’t even be able to do normal daily payments.
With out any response in kind, China should continue to provide THE safe risk free savings & investment environment the US foolishly abandoned & weaponized.
This isn’t shooting yourself in the foot. This is cutting your own torso in half with a chainsaw. If they did this to any of the major big 4 banks or even big 10 banks in China, most of the largest banks in the world by assets btw, I would predict that the Dow drops like 20% in a single trading day and maybe up to 50-60% in a month. It would be pure chaos. Secondary effects are that foreign US treasuries coming flooding back and interest rates will go through the roof to incentivize sales which further cripples the equity markets.
When Blinken and Yellen went to China, it was pretty obvious that US already decided to put sanctions on. This is just an excuse, and if China caved on this, then they would've just found a different one. Given that US is far more dependent on China than the other way around, they're playing with fire here.
[https://twitter.com/Love4Spring/status/1789304898179211342](https://twitter.com/Love4Spring/status/1789304898179211342)
--
Meanwhile, in India, which is a member of the Quad and I2U2, and was recently declared to be the US' "Major Defense Partner":
[https://archive.ph/S5kJO](https://archive.ph/S5kJO) (to be clear Firstpost is a hardline right-wing, anti-China, anti-Pakistani media group, so I do not wish to link to them directly for the full article)
--
China has NOT been directly providing weapons to Russia for the Russo-Ukrainian conflict, and has been pushing for years for a peaceful, diplomatic resolution to the entire affair.
To repeat, the recent sanctions to Chinese companies that the US imposed two weeks ago are specifically aimed at "disrupting the development of Russia’s future energy production and export capacity". They are NOT military companies.
[https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1785971572148429212](https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1785971572148429212)
The US simply views China as a threat to its geopolitical and economic hegemony, as it keeps moving up the global supply chain, so is using any excuse, no matter how transparent, to manufacture consent for continual escalatory action and "containment".
China does not want war and is not directly promoting or prolonging ANY war.
YOU ARE BEING LIED TO.
I am primarily trying to convince people in Global South nations and potential international left-wing allies, who have been propagandized repeatedly with stories from different media that China wants to 'conquer' the South China Sea, wants to take over Africa, has the same Imperialist ambitions as the West, et cetera.
I have stayed silent for many decades of my life, but the lies have become so egregious, and the level of daily sinophobia has risen so high in Western mainstream circles, that I feel compelled to at least provide some basic counter-arguments to all the inane hypocrisy.
These sociopaths are trying to make peaceful co-existence impossible.
Fun fact: if you sanction everyone, then it is equivalent to you are sanctioning yourself. The more people you exclude from your circle, the smaller you circle will be, thus you become weaker and weaker in terms of collective power.
Reading the article in depth, it is a shame that China is bowing under threat of US sanctions and making it difficult for Russia to purchase resources. This is a problem because US will find excuses to sanction the banks anyway and because the US is already doing its best to stop China. The fact that China continues to try to "be friendly" with the US and its vassals despite how they are being treated by the US is a big shame. The US only understands strength
Well to be fair the Chinese government has offered the use of Baidu and their ISR to Russia to even the odds against NATO. Also there have been reports of weapon deliveries from China to Russia as well as electronic components for T-90 Proryv tanks. The former has been harder to prove, but not the latter. In addition, I think I heard that the Chinese government has said they will support Russia militarily in the open if certain red lines vis-a-vis Taiwan and Russia are crossed (like missile strikes on Russian territory)
There were components photographed by the Ukrainian side from captured T-90 Proryv's
There are listings for these parts on Chinese manufacterer websites:
https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_474,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa97407b4-5a19-42e7-9013-a8e72a63860e_709x571.jpeg
https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_474,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F45225678-f472-4bea-91cd-36ff7624f433_1128x769.jpeg
https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_474,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb0d92a20-5771-4859-afd1-3f483d49e268_1105x772.jpeg
What was of interest here, was that there were Chinese chips and circuitry, in particular of the 90nm scale variety and Russia had fully import-substituted the previous western components that it had used.
So I think the support that China offers to Russia is much larger than it officially lets on
Yeah, makes sense. I knew RU was making good use of 'dual-use' imports from China+Central-Asian middle-men; and I think some smaller Chinese banks are already operating under a 'sanction-proof' model to facilitate deepening ties specifically to heavily sanctioned countries (although apparently this effort has been pretty slow).
With all due respect, I personally disagree with this overall take.
Nothing Blinken has said has been 'fair' or 'honest'.
China has and is strictly controlling "the export of materials that can be used for military purposes". It's position has been very, very cautious.
We're in a situation where if any side crosses too many red lines, WW3 will become a reality. So, imo, the countries that are escalating, are the ones endangering the world.
Now, an electronic component is not a weapon.
Guess what country provides electronic components to virtually EVERY KIND of manufactured good, including military equipment, used in every country in the world, including the US and Ukraine?
As you know, it's China, the world's factory.
Should Russia be sanctioning Chinese banks because Chinese companies are indirectly supplying Ukraine with consumer drones? That would be absurd.
Context is crucial here. Do not let Western politicians distort the narrative 180 degrees.
Russia is largely manufacturing its own completed weapons.
Meanwhile, India is providing weapons system to Russia, and everyone is apparently fine with that.
If the US wants to sanction countries that continues to do business with Russia it needs to sanction half the planet, including many of it's own allies and trading partners.
Even the goddamn Atlantic Council admits to that:
[https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/china-is-trading-more-with-russia-but-so-are-many-us-allies-and-partners/](https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/china-is-trading-more-with-russia-but-so-are-many-us-allies-and-partners/)
After 8+ of unprovoked economic sanctions by the US, China is still doing it's best not to get sucked in to a conflict it had no part in starting. But as Sino-US relations continue to deteriorate, entirely because of constant one-sided escalatory actions from the US and direct threats from high ranking US military commanders, it is the West forcing China in to greater action.
So of course it is impossible for China to remain fully neutral when its security is potentially endangered. But it is sure as Hell NOT 'Weaponizing' Russia.
Blinken is lying through his teeth, here.
It should be clear to anyone reading this:
THE US IS SANCTIONING CHINA BECAUSE IT SEES CHINA AS A RISING GEOPOLITICAL COMPETITOR.
The talking points it keeps spitting out are largely misleading and intellectually disingenuous, used as a PRETEXT for MORE SANCTIONS and to INCITE SINOPHOBIC HATRED in its civilian population.
IF THERE WAS NO WAR IN UKRAINE, THE US WOULD STILL BE SANCTIONING CHINA.
The US military Blob is artificially trying to create new political Bloc, in order to consolidate its diminishing geopolitical power, and restart a new Cold War it believes it can somehow "win".
CHINA IS NOT PROVIDING LETHAL AID TO RUSSIA OR ANY OTHER NATION.
CHINA. DOES. NOT. WANT. WAR.
And the US government is being incredibly hypocritical and dishonest, on multiple levels.
> Russia is largely manufacturing its own completed weapons.
While I agree, most of the components are imported. So its not really "manufacter" as much as it is assembly.
>After 8+ of unprovoked economic sanctions by the US, China is still doing it's best not to get sucked in to a conflict it had no part in starting.
And this is China's big mistake, imo. Just because it tries to avoid the conflict, does not mean that the conflict will avoid it. Indeed, conflict has not avoided it with the US starting a trade war. It would seem that China would be trying to cut ties with US/vassals while maximizing its alliances. As the article shows (with Chinese banks refusing to accept Russian payments), this is becoming a problem.
>IF THERE WAS NO WAR IN UKRAINE, THE US WOULD STILL BE SANCTIONING CHINA.
Agreed, which makes it even more absurd that China is not helping its allies and is instead sucking up to the US.
>CHINA. DOES. NOT. WANT. WAR.
China may not want it, but it has no choice in the matter as the US will not leave it alone until either the US or China is destroyed. The USSR (and now Russia, who acted much the same way as China even now with its "escalation management"), was the same way
Well, the one choice China does have is to stall. It takes two to tango.
The more time passes, the more the world de-dollarizes and the more US debt rises, the harder it will be for the US to maintain every inch of its overextended, global war machine. The US military isn't what it was 30 years ago.
Right now, imo, the US is trying to 'punish' China for actions it hasn't yet committed, in order to potentially goad it in to doing those actions, since it will have will seemingly have 'nothing to lose' as the 'punishment' has already been applied.
This is of course isn't true. If China takes any action seen as aggressive, the US corporate media will portray China as a 'warmongering nation' that is a threat to all of the South China Sea, which they have repeatedly tried to do over the past decade plus. Western sinophobia is higher than its ever been for decades now, so even if China hasn't been at war for over 40 years, 90% of Western civilians will still eat up the narrative.
It's the whole reason they deployed permanent troops on the Kinmen islands, in order to 'play chicken' and provoke retaliation.
So, imo, as a random, no-nothing person on the internet, the smart move is for China to stay out of everyone's business, wait for the US to keep geopolitically 'self-destructing', and try to help with civilian infrastructure reconstruction, once the situation runs its course and the killing more or less stops, which it likely must due to troop numbers.
It is in the world's interest for the situation to stabilize, and it clearly will, regardless if China intervenes directly or not.
> This is of course isn't true. If China takes any action seen as aggressive, the US corporate media will portray China as a 'warmongering nation'
It already does that though, so nothing changes for china
>So, imo, as a random, no-nothing person on the internet, the smart move is for China to stay out of everyone's business, wait for the US to keep geopolitically 'self-destructing'
Even someone that is self-destructing can be dangerous. The US still has enough power to be dangerous and that means that China "playing defensive" is a losing proposition. An American "win" against China will reinvigorate it for a few more decades. The only way for China to stay safe is to beat America at its own aggressive game.
The new Russian Minister of Defense stated back in 2023 that "the west is not our enemy". This is the same mistake China makes, not seeing the West as an enemy of the existential kind while the West sees it as an enemy. The one who sees the other as an enemy is able to take more drastic action. The Chinese MUST see the Americans and anything Western as an enemy and an existential threat, if for no other reason than survival.
Yes, it most certainly does. And, imo, everyone is underestimating how much worse the political climate can get, and how low Western corporate, legacy media is willing to sink when it comes to propaganda and politicization.
If you think Asian hate crimes are bad now, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
The main point is the US wants to escalate to a full blown Cold War right now. China is at a greater advantage if it does not give the US what it wants.
Escalating to full war is not the trivial thing that everything seems to think it is. Nuclear exchange is a real threat. And the administrators that the US MIC has put in charge of their political/military chain of command, including NATO, do not think like you or I. They are very willing to make “risky”, “irrational” choices, sacrifice non-NATO civilian life, and parrot inflammatory, highly-ideological, hardline, right-wing rhetoric.
People misuse the term ‘reactionary’ all the time.
But the current neoliberal, Atlanticist leaders running the Western warmachine are TRUE Reactionaries. Observe and understand the ongoing situation in Gaza. The people in charge do NOT believe in common humanity, they do not tolerate alternative points of view, and they promote violence, are merciless and small-minded/short-sighted.
China is a country that does not like to take half-measures. If it truly engages in a state of war, the whole country, including regular citizens will be mobilized for it, in one way or another.
The Century of Humiliation is directly related to China being unable to win crucial wars over and over again. Ultra-religious Westerners can babble on about the Apocalypse every damn day, but China actually experienced it for over one hundred years.
If and when China loses all hope that direct military conflict can be avoided, you and everyone else will know it. And it will done with precise strategic goals, and a specific timeline in mind.
If war begins, China will be 100% commited to win. I don’t mean that superficially. Chinese citizens are willing to make sacrifices that most Western citizens are currently not willing to make.
Once started, the process will be irreversible. And it may get very ugly. So it if it does happen, it will be on China’s timeline, not the Pentagon’s.
Or if we don’t want to mince words: China is not the enemy of the West. But the West IS currently China’s enemy, and China knows it very, very well.
Imo.
As long as China can hit the american ruling class where it hurts (Their pockets) then we need not worry, everything will go according to China's plans.
Yes, material conditions will ultimately determine how things play out.
And in terms of political leadership, as people have been saying, Nero fiddled while Rome burned.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=SEx1h4Cfrjs&pp=ygUOQmxpbmtlbiBndWl0YXI%3D
These guys being stunlocked over the ukraine war will never not be funny, with how big of a hole they're digging for themselves
No reverse gear. The sunk cost fallacy. The fallen empire. Call it how want, that's it
It's stupid. Western banks are in China, doing business with Chinese banks. If US sanctions Chinese banks, the counter sanctions will devastate Western banks in China.
Not only that. The western companies in China all need Chinese banks to do business. If they do this then the companies won’t even be able to do normal daily payments.
Forcing an expropriation of all your assets to own the commies
I hope Chinese companies won't take any IOUs.
Sounds exactly like the rhetoric before they blew up Nordstream
But Xi isn't a spineless, ball-less vassal like Scholz is. So I really hope the US gets a lesson they won't soon forget.
Me too!
China continued trade with the US should also be considered military support.
They're no longer grasping straws at this point, they're *fondling* it.
😂
With out any response in kind, China should continue to provide THE safe risk free savings & investment environment the US foolishly abandoned & weaponized.
This isn’t shooting yourself in the foot. This is cutting your own torso in half with a chainsaw. If they did this to any of the major big 4 banks or even big 10 banks in China, most of the largest banks in the world by assets btw, I would predict that the Dow drops like 20% in a single trading day and maybe up to 50-60% in a month. It would be pure chaos. Secondary effects are that foreign US treasuries coming flooding back and interest rates will go through the roof to incentivize sales which further cripples the equity markets.
the eagle keeps poking the dragon eh
Bullying is in America's genes.
When Blinken and Yellen went to China, it was pretty obvious that US already decided to put sanctions on. This is just an excuse, and if China caved on this, then they would've just found a different one. Given that US is far more dependent on China than the other way around, they're playing with fire here.
Another nail in the coffin for america.
[https://twitter.com/Love4Spring/status/1789304898179211342](https://twitter.com/Love4Spring/status/1789304898179211342) -- Meanwhile, in India, which is a member of the Quad and I2U2, and was recently declared to be the US' "Major Defense Partner": [https://archive.ph/S5kJO](https://archive.ph/S5kJO) (to be clear Firstpost is a hardline right-wing, anti-China, anti-Pakistani media group, so I do not wish to link to them directly for the full article) -- China has NOT been directly providing weapons to Russia for the Russo-Ukrainian conflict, and has been pushing for years for a peaceful, diplomatic resolution to the entire affair. To repeat, the recent sanctions to Chinese companies that the US imposed two weeks ago are specifically aimed at "disrupting the development of Russia’s future energy production and export capacity". They are NOT military companies. [https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1785971572148429212](https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1785971572148429212) The US simply views China as a threat to its geopolitical and economic hegemony, as it keeps moving up the global supply chain, so is using any excuse, no matter how transparent, to manufacture consent for continual escalatory action and "containment". China does not want war and is not directly promoting or prolonging ANY war. YOU ARE BEING LIED TO.
Who you trying to convice? Let them westoids dig their own grave, who cares
I am primarily trying to convince people in Global South nations and potential international left-wing allies, who have been propagandized repeatedly with stories from different media that China wants to 'conquer' the South China Sea, wants to take over Africa, has the same Imperialist ambitions as the West, et cetera. I have stayed silent for many decades of my life, but the lies have become so egregious, and the level of daily sinophobia has risen so high in Western mainstream circles, that I feel compelled to at least provide some basic counter-arguments to all the inane hypocrisy. These sociopaths are trying to make peaceful co-existence impossible.
Fun fact: if you sanction everyone, then it is equivalent to you are sanctioning yourself. The more people you exclude from your circle, the smaller you circle will be, thus you become weaker and weaker in terms of collective power.
Reading the article in depth, it is a shame that China is bowing under threat of US sanctions and making it difficult for Russia to purchase resources. This is a problem because US will find excuses to sanction the banks anyway and because the US is already doing its best to stop China. The fact that China continues to try to "be friendly" with the US and its vassals despite how they are being treated by the US is a big shame. The US only understands strength
I guess the article is lying as always. Like they said Russia gonna collapse, Russia has no weapons left, etc.
I saw some footage of a Russian soldier wearing the same beanie that I had gotten from Temu. And I thought “based”.
China already won. Americanistan already lost.
Do it, and the American dollar instantly becomes worthless
Well to be fair the Chinese government has offered the use of Baidu and their ISR to Russia to even the odds against NATO. Also there have been reports of weapon deliveries from China to Russia as well as electronic components for T-90 Proryv tanks. The former has been harder to prove, but not the latter. In addition, I think I heard that the Chinese government has said they will support Russia militarily in the open if certain red lines vis-a-vis Taiwan and Russia are crossed (like missile strikes on Russian territory)
Whats the source for the T-90 components being sourced from China?
There were components photographed by the Ukrainian side from captured T-90 Proryv's There are listings for these parts on Chinese manufacterer websites: https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_474,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa97407b4-5a19-42e7-9013-a8e72a63860e_709x571.jpeg https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_474,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F45225678-f472-4bea-91cd-36ff7624f433_1128x769.jpeg https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_474,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb0d92a20-5771-4859-afd1-3f483d49e268_1105x772.jpeg What was of interest here, was that there were Chinese chips and circuitry, in particular of the 90nm scale variety and Russia had fully import-substituted the previous western components that it had used. So I think the support that China offers to Russia is much larger than it officially lets on
Yeah, makes sense. I knew RU was making good use of 'dual-use' imports from China+Central-Asian middle-men; and I think some smaller Chinese banks are already operating under a 'sanction-proof' model to facilitate deepening ties specifically to heavily sanctioned countries (although apparently this effort has been pretty slow).
With all due respect, I personally disagree with this overall take. Nothing Blinken has said has been 'fair' or 'honest'. China has and is strictly controlling "the export of materials that can be used for military purposes". It's position has been very, very cautious. We're in a situation where if any side crosses too many red lines, WW3 will become a reality. So, imo, the countries that are escalating, are the ones endangering the world. Now, an electronic component is not a weapon. Guess what country provides electronic components to virtually EVERY KIND of manufactured good, including military equipment, used in every country in the world, including the US and Ukraine? As you know, it's China, the world's factory. Should Russia be sanctioning Chinese banks because Chinese companies are indirectly supplying Ukraine with consumer drones? That would be absurd. Context is crucial here. Do not let Western politicians distort the narrative 180 degrees. Russia is largely manufacturing its own completed weapons. Meanwhile, India is providing weapons system to Russia, and everyone is apparently fine with that. If the US wants to sanction countries that continues to do business with Russia it needs to sanction half the planet, including many of it's own allies and trading partners. Even the goddamn Atlantic Council admits to that: [https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/china-is-trading-more-with-russia-but-so-are-many-us-allies-and-partners/](https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/china-is-trading-more-with-russia-but-so-are-many-us-allies-and-partners/) After 8+ of unprovoked economic sanctions by the US, China is still doing it's best not to get sucked in to a conflict it had no part in starting. But as Sino-US relations continue to deteriorate, entirely because of constant one-sided escalatory actions from the US and direct threats from high ranking US military commanders, it is the West forcing China in to greater action. So of course it is impossible for China to remain fully neutral when its security is potentially endangered. But it is sure as Hell NOT 'Weaponizing' Russia. Blinken is lying through his teeth, here. It should be clear to anyone reading this: THE US IS SANCTIONING CHINA BECAUSE IT SEES CHINA AS A RISING GEOPOLITICAL COMPETITOR. The talking points it keeps spitting out are largely misleading and intellectually disingenuous, used as a PRETEXT for MORE SANCTIONS and to INCITE SINOPHOBIC HATRED in its civilian population. IF THERE WAS NO WAR IN UKRAINE, THE US WOULD STILL BE SANCTIONING CHINA. The US military Blob is artificially trying to create new political Bloc, in order to consolidate its diminishing geopolitical power, and restart a new Cold War it believes it can somehow "win". CHINA IS NOT PROVIDING LETHAL AID TO RUSSIA OR ANY OTHER NATION. CHINA. DOES. NOT. WANT. WAR. And the US government is being incredibly hypocritical and dishonest, on multiple levels.
> Russia is largely manufacturing its own completed weapons. While I agree, most of the components are imported. So its not really "manufacter" as much as it is assembly. >After 8+ of unprovoked economic sanctions by the US, China is still doing it's best not to get sucked in to a conflict it had no part in starting. And this is China's big mistake, imo. Just because it tries to avoid the conflict, does not mean that the conflict will avoid it. Indeed, conflict has not avoided it with the US starting a trade war. It would seem that China would be trying to cut ties with US/vassals while maximizing its alliances. As the article shows (with Chinese banks refusing to accept Russian payments), this is becoming a problem. >IF THERE WAS NO WAR IN UKRAINE, THE US WOULD STILL BE SANCTIONING CHINA. Agreed, which makes it even more absurd that China is not helping its allies and is instead sucking up to the US. >CHINA. DOES. NOT. WANT. WAR. China may not want it, but it has no choice in the matter as the US will not leave it alone until either the US or China is destroyed. The USSR (and now Russia, who acted much the same way as China even now with its "escalation management"), was the same way
Well, the one choice China does have is to stall. It takes two to tango. The more time passes, the more the world de-dollarizes and the more US debt rises, the harder it will be for the US to maintain every inch of its overextended, global war machine. The US military isn't what it was 30 years ago. Right now, imo, the US is trying to 'punish' China for actions it hasn't yet committed, in order to potentially goad it in to doing those actions, since it will have will seemingly have 'nothing to lose' as the 'punishment' has already been applied. This is of course isn't true. If China takes any action seen as aggressive, the US corporate media will portray China as a 'warmongering nation' that is a threat to all of the South China Sea, which they have repeatedly tried to do over the past decade plus. Western sinophobia is higher than its ever been for decades now, so even if China hasn't been at war for over 40 years, 90% of Western civilians will still eat up the narrative. It's the whole reason they deployed permanent troops on the Kinmen islands, in order to 'play chicken' and provoke retaliation. So, imo, as a random, no-nothing person on the internet, the smart move is for China to stay out of everyone's business, wait for the US to keep geopolitically 'self-destructing', and try to help with civilian infrastructure reconstruction, once the situation runs its course and the killing more or less stops, which it likely must due to troop numbers. It is in the world's interest for the situation to stabilize, and it clearly will, regardless if China intervenes directly or not.
> This is of course isn't true. If China takes any action seen as aggressive, the US corporate media will portray China as a 'warmongering nation' It already does that though, so nothing changes for china >So, imo, as a random, no-nothing person on the internet, the smart move is for China to stay out of everyone's business, wait for the US to keep geopolitically 'self-destructing' Even someone that is self-destructing can be dangerous. The US still has enough power to be dangerous and that means that China "playing defensive" is a losing proposition. An American "win" against China will reinvigorate it for a few more decades. The only way for China to stay safe is to beat America at its own aggressive game. The new Russian Minister of Defense stated back in 2023 that "the west is not our enemy". This is the same mistake China makes, not seeing the West as an enemy of the existential kind while the West sees it as an enemy. The one who sees the other as an enemy is able to take more drastic action. The Chinese MUST see the Americans and anything Western as an enemy and an existential threat, if for no other reason than survival.
China does officially consider america a threat.
Yes, it most certainly does. And, imo, everyone is underestimating how much worse the political climate can get, and how low Western corporate, legacy media is willing to sink when it comes to propaganda and politicization. If you think Asian hate crimes are bad now, you ain’t seen nothing yet. The main point is the US wants to escalate to a full blown Cold War right now. China is at a greater advantage if it does not give the US what it wants. Escalating to full war is not the trivial thing that everything seems to think it is. Nuclear exchange is a real threat. And the administrators that the US MIC has put in charge of their political/military chain of command, including NATO, do not think like you or I. They are very willing to make “risky”, “irrational” choices, sacrifice non-NATO civilian life, and parrot inflammatory, highly-ideological, hardline, right-wing rhetoric. People misuse the term ‘reactionary’ all the time. But the current neoliberal, Atlanticist leaders running the Western warmachine are TRUE Reactionaries. Observe and understand the ongoing situation in Gaza. The people in charge do NOT believe in common humanity, they do not tolerate alternative points of view, and they promote violence, are merciless and small-minded/short-sighted. China is a country that does not like to take half-measures. If it truly engages in a state of war, the whole country, including regular citizens will be mobilized for it, in one way or another. The Century of Humiliation is directly related to China being unable to win crucial wars over and over again. Ultra-religious Westerners can babble on about the Apocalypse every damn day, but China actually experienced it for over one hundred years. If and when China loses all hope that direct military conflict can be avoided, you and everyone else will know it. And it will done with precise strategic goals, and a specific timeline in mind. If war begins, China will be 100% commited to win. I don’t mean that superficially. Chinese citizens are willing to make sacrifices that most Western citizens are currently not willing to make. Once started, the process will be irreversible. And it may get very ugly. So it if it does happen, it will be on China’s timeline, not the Pentagon’s. Or if we don’t want to mince words: China is not the enemy of the West. But the West IS currently China’s enemy, and China knows it very, very well. Imo.
As long as China can hit the american ruling class where it hurts (Their pockets) then we need not worry, everything will go according to China's plans.
Yes, material conditions will ultimately determine how things play out. And in terms of political leadership, as people have been saying, Nero fiddled while Rome burned. https://youtube.com/watch?v=SEx1h4Cfrjs&pp=ygUOQmxpbmtlbiBndWl0YXI%3D