I think it would be a mistake to view China as isolated in this. First of all, Russia, Vietnam and Iran are pretty strong partners to have. Secondly, there is the BRICS bloc, which has been growing largely due to American abuses of the international finance system. America flip flopping so hard on tariffs and then extorting every country in the world will no doubt cause American soft power to decline rapidly in the coming years as countries grow weary.
Also, on a purely military and industrial basis, China outclasses the whole of the west by such a margin that there really isn’t anything to worry about. China of all countries cannot have its industries decimated short of nuclear strikes.
I think it would be a mistake to view China as isolated in this.
In -ALL- of this? No. In this specific situation where everyone else has already slipped the tariffs? Yes. Absolutely they’re standing on their own basically in the immediate moment.
As to US soft power I think Trump was already the sign that they’ve given up on that. If they hadn’t they wouldn’t be gutting all the soft power operations with DOGE and doing so much damage to image with threats to annex Greenland and Canada. I think the die has been cast there that hard imperialism is the way forward, cold war 1.0 playbook basically. I think Ukraine was a wake-up call because US propaganda didn’t pull in the global south, it just plain failed outside of Europe and US vassals in Asia. What soft power they retain will be aimed at “traditional values” crowd as in the cold war, running up red-scare stuff about Chinese commies gay marrying you against your will and things like that.
America is very much in a do or die situation and we know it, they know it, China knows it. They’re trying to undergo a transformation which will either succeed in prolonging their grip on power or hastening their demise, the way to delay and hedge against either was to continue the old path but that led to certain doom while this they feel gives them a chance.
No. In this specific situation where everyone else has already slipped the tariffs?
China is the biggest target, it hasn’t been isolated from the world economy or the free trade system. America is making an attempt to isolate china but how many countries will play along?
What soft power they retain will be aimed at “traditional values” crowd
Fair enough. But there is more to soft power than just cultural factors. The reliability of the American market itself is in question, and this is not a good thing. America going with fascist aesthetics is nowhere near as America trying to interfere with the global gravy train.
It is impossible to convince the Europeans to side with the global south out of the goodness of their hearts (which they don’t have). However, fucking with their wallets will cause everyone except the most ardent European hitlerites to rethink their relationship with America.
I think it would be a mistake to view China as isolated in this. First of all, Russia, Vietnam and Iran are pretty strong partners to have. Secondly, there is the BRICS bloc, which has been growing largely due to American abuses of the international finance system. America flip flopping so hard on tariffs and then extorting every country in the world will no doubt cause American soft power to decline rapidly in the coming years as countries grow weary.
Also, on a purely military and industrial basis, China outclasses the whole of the west by such a margin that there really isn’t anything to worry about. China of all countries cannot have its industries decimated short of nuclear strikes.
In -ALL- of this? No. In this specific situation where everyone else has already slipped the tariffs? Yes. Absolutely they’re standing on their own basically in the immediate moment.
As to US soft power I think Trump was already the sign that they’ve given up on that. If they hadn’t they wouldn’t be gutting all the soft power operations with DOGE and doing so much damage to image with threats to annex Greenland and Canada. I think the die has been cast there that hard imperialism is the way forward, cold war 1.0 playbook basically. I think Ukraine was a wake-up call because US propaganda didn’t pull in the global south, it just plain failed outside of Europe and US vassals in Asia. What soft power they retain will be aimed at “traditional values” crowd as in the cold war, running up red-scare stuff about Chinese commies gay marrying you against your will and things like that.
America is very much in a do or die situation and we know it, they know it, China knows it. They’re trying to undergo a transformation which will either succeed in prolonging their grip on power or hastening their demise, the way to delay and hedge against either was to continue the old path but that led to certain doom while this they feel gives them a chance.
China is the biggest target, it hasn’t been isolated from the world economy or the free trade system. America is making an attempt to isolate china but how many countries will play along?
Fair enough. But there is more to soft power than just cultural factors. The reliability of the American market itself is in question, and this is not a good thing. America going with fascist aesthetics is nowhere near as America trying to interfere with the global gravy train.
It is impossible to convince the Europeans to side with the global south out of the goodness of their hearts (which they don’t have). However, fucking with their wallets will cause everyone except the most ardent European hitlerites to rethink their relationship with America.