Trump's order on China...A Prelude to war?
It's gotta be.
I am not even sure how he can issue such an order without a war declaration:
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/23/navarro-not-worried-china-trade-war-1473382
Fed Chairman Powell is obviously, now, (in my best guess scenario) "in collusion" with the Chicoms to slow our economy and to take the wind out of Trump's re-election hopes.
(Image courtesy of nationalinterest.org.)
Excerpt:
"'Our Country has lost, stupidly, Trillions of Dollars with China over many years. They have stolen our Intellectual Property at a rate of Hundreds of Billions of Dollars a year, & they want to continue,' Trump wrote. 'I won’t let that happen! We don’t need China and, frankly, would be far better off without them.'
He continued, 'The vast amounts of money made and stolen by China from the United States, year after year, for decades, will and must STOP. Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing your companies HOME and making your products in the USA. I will be responding to China’s Tariffs this afternoon. This is a GREAT opportunity for the United States'."
This, IMHO, does increase the likelihood of not just economic war, but HOT MILITARY ACTION. I am not sure there is any other way out at this point. China is almost totally dependent on selling their cheap crap, unfettered, to US suckers.
we will be going to war with china but it will not be because of the tariffs
that is just a distraction and it will be in part because of the USS of A has to attack them now because in ten years they will be stronger than us and the other thing is the rare earth elements but mainly because if they dont attack now china will attack when they are more powerful and i dont think it will take ten years
what a joke calling china currency manipulators when the USS of A are the biggest currency manipulators on the p[lanet cause they are the reserve currency
poor poor sheep
good article either way
the US is totally dependant on buying shit cheap from china also we have to look at both sides of the fence here the worst govts in the world are from china and the states
a shame really always the most powerful are always the most oppresive
If it's a prelude to war, why has neither nation recalled their ambassador or expelled the other's citizens?
He doesn't have the constitutional authority to issue this order (though I'd love to see companies follow it anyway), but similar orders have been given by congress numerous times without a military follow-up. Recall the trade war against Japan in the 80's and 90's.
As for China being dependent on selling their cheap crap to the US, this is true, but they are trying (with mixed levels of success and failure) to change that. That's what BRI is. A few of China's bigwigs think they're going to use that to rule the world and the West certainly thinks that what China is up to, but in reality it's a desperate bid to create access to markets other than the US to avoid collapsing if we drop them like an ugly prom date, which we're doing before BRI is finished.
As for the potential for military action, I don't see that the US will start one (because we don't need it: we're crushing them), and I doubt China will be stupid enough to start one because beneath all the strum and drang, they know they lack a snowball's chance in hell of winning one.
Prelude...not the obvious run up, which, yes WOULD include expelling each other's diplomats and so forth.
We may leave them no choice if somehow Trump does get them declared "an enemy" and actually, Constitutionally, stops all imports.
And here's where the rhetoric gets to a knife-edge. Just as Kennedy avoided a war by referring to our ships around Cuba as a "quarantine" rather than a "blockade," the trick here will be to make all the moves like we're declaring them an enemy without openly declaring it.
As for "not leaving China any choice," they already don't have one. I don't know if you realize just how weak the Chinese military is, but they MUST avoid a war with us at any and all costs. They're not even a one-to-one match for Japan, let alone us. They'll do a lot of huffing and puffing, but they cannot afford a war. What I think will happen is this:
China will get hit, and roll back into a downslope cycle for a while, as their rising and falling power has done for centuries. However, they will spend their time indoctrinating their kids to remember this, framing it as one more "national humiliation of the motherland" by "eeeeevil Western imperialists," with the mandate to one day restore China to a level where they can take revenge for this alleged "humiliation." China has a long memory, after all. Then, a few generations (or maybe even a century or two) from now, they'll be on the upswing again, and THAT will be the day when the world, especially the US, will need to fear them.
But in my lifetime, my children's lifetime, and even my grandchildren's lifetime, China is nothing to be afraid of, as long as America keeps up the pressure and finishes the job of beating them.
OK.