JLW
Diamond Member
- Sep 16, 2012
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…the U.S.’s global primacy is facing its greatest challenge yet, as President Trump destabilizes military alliances, unleashes a trade war on the entire world and unilaterally dismantles key instruments of soft power like foreign aid.
This upheaval has created an opportunity for an ascendant China, which has long sought to contest Washington’s central place in the world order. Beijing is portraying itself as a pillar of stability at a time when Washington’s behavior is increasingly unpredictable, if not outright erratic. “The Chinese are trying to establish their own global pre-eminence, and Trump has just made it easier for the Chinese to achieve their wider ambitions in spite of the economic damage that is being inflicted on China,” said Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London,
A sense that the U.S. and its democratic allies shared common values long prevented China from making such inroads. Now that Trump is seeking a rapprochement with authoritarian Russia while making threats to annex Greenland, Canada and the Panama Canal, that essential bond is vanishing fast. “Trump doesn’t share the values that we have shared with every single one of his predecessors, Republican or Democrat, for over 80 years. And he doesn’t even pretend to share them,” said Australia’s former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Opinion polls in many European nations show that the U.S. is no longer perceived as an ally, or even a friend. Vice President JD Vance has said that President Trump “doesn’t care about what the Europeans scream at us. He cares about putting the interests of America’s citizens first.”
Beijing’s message amid this crisis is that China represents the best hope for “win-win cooperation” and global prosperity, in contrast with what the Chinese foreign ministry calls America’s “unilateral bullying practice.” Countries around the world are skeptical of the Chinese Communist Party’s intentions, but the language of respectful cooperation is far more appealing than Washington’s demands to pay tribute—as when Trump said this week that “countries are calling us up, kissing my ass” to make a deal on tariffs…”
This is the conservative WSJ making this argument.
This is MAGA and Trumpism for you.
MAGA’s yell and scream about Chinese power on one hand, but strengthen China’s influence around the world on the other.
In less than 4 months, Trump has decimated the reputation of the United States around the world.
Trump’s stupidity is paving the way for the next century to be the Chinese Century.
This upheaval has created an opportunity for an ascendant China, which has long sought to contest Washington’s central place in the world order. Beijing is portraying itself as a pillar of stability at a time when Washington’s behavior is increasingly unpredictable, if not outright erratic. “The Chinese are trying to establish their own global pre-eminence, and Trump has just made it easier for the Chinese to achieve their wider ambitions in spite of the economic damage that is being inflicted on China,” said Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London,
A sense that the U.S. and its democratic allies shared common values long prevented China from making such inroads. Now that Trump is seeking a rapprochement with authoritarian Russia while making threats to annex Greenland, Canada and the Panama Canal, that essential bond is vanishing fast. “Trump doesn’t share the values that we have shared with every single one of his predecessors, Republican or Democrat, for over 80 years. And he doesn’t even pretend to share them,” said Australia’s former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Opinion polls in many European nations show that the U.S. is no longer perceived as an ally, or even a friend. Vice President JD Vance has said that President Trump “doesn’t care about what the Europeans scream at us. He cares about putting the interests of America’s citizens first.”
Beijing’s message amid this crisis is that China represents the best hope for “win-win cooperation” and global prosperity, in contrast with what the Chinese foreign ministry calls America’s “unilateral bullying practice.” Countries around the world are skeptical of the Chinese Communist Party’s intentions, but the language of respectful cooperation is far more appealing than Washington’s demands to pay tribute—as when Trump said this week that “countries are calling us up, kissing my ass” to make a deal on tariffs…”
This is the conservative WSJ making this argument.
This is MAGA and Trumpism for you.
MAGA’s yell and scream about Chinese power on one hand, but strengthen China’s influence around the world on the other.
In less than 4 months, Trump has decimated the reputation of the United States around the world.
Trump’s stupidity is paving the way for the next century to be the Chinese Century.
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