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- Gradually reduce trade dependency on China. That includes diversifying away from Taiwan on tech manufacturing as quickly as possible and diversifying away from China on rare earth metals. The US has to get a lot more serious about this, the big globalist faux-US corporations will need punched in the face to get them in line (ie more stick than carrot; they've already been given a lot of carrots, it didn't work). This one is a lot easier than sparring with China, yet the US is failing at it. Which tells you how any Big Plans(TM) will go. - Invest far more heavily in domestic R&D, science, technology, tech manufacturing, and manufacturing in general. That will be necessary just to attempt to keep up with China in the coming decades. The US talks a lot about doing this and its follow-through is often mediocre. Cut the corp tax rate for domestic manufacturing to 15%. Reduce burden and regulation everywhere we reasonably can, make it easier to manufacture in the US (which doesn't mean getting rid of all regulations). - Reform US immigration. Mirror the approach Canada, Australia and most smart, affluent nations follow. Make it very easy for high-skill labor to come to the US and gain citizenship. This is a huge advantage over China, one they can never possess, we need to maximize on it. This is an easy win (if the US were still high-functioning). - Double annual US infrastructure spending for at least the next 20 years. That should include: build five regional high-speed rail systems (Federal project, use Federal power to move roadblocks out of the way, including enviro laws, be as vicious as necessary); build several new nuclear power plants per year, should be federal projects treated with national security importance; bolster and rebuild the US grid, we're nowhere near ready for an all-electric vehicle future; build a lot more wind power, including off-shore, it's our best bet for easy gains on renewables. Debt is cheap (we're buying our own paper), and we're going to financial hell no matter what we do now, so we might as well fix our eroding infrastructure and improve the quality of life for future generations while we're at it. The US talks about doing these things, and never really does them. The joke of an infrastructure bill in DC won't do much, like putting a band-aid on terminal cancer. - Stop trading with China on badly unequal terms. Block foreign investment into China by US citizens & corporations, and block investment into the US by China. Block all real-estate purchases by Chinese citizens and corporations. Block all business acquisitions by Chinese companies across the board. Increase blocks on technology transfer. - Reduce US military adventurism toward zero. Close at least 3/4 of all US military bases around the globe. Abandon the Middle East militarily, including entirely pulling out of Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, et al. Those days are permanently over. Reduce a lot of the US military presence in Europe, cut it in half. Redirect a portion of that to Asia Pacific; some of it doesn't get redirected, as we can't afford all of it, some of it has to go away. - Start focusing on treating our own people a lot better (reduce the prison population, get rid of mandatory minimum sentencing, legalize most drugs, decriminalize all drugs). Attempt to regain some of the moral stature that has been burned up by various DC stupidity across decades. This matters if you plan to appeal to the rest of the world in a forever confrontation with China. We have to represent positive, humanist qualities that the CCP doesn't and can't. Otherwise what's the point. - This goes with the last item. Refocus US military spending on improving the lives of Americans, not blowing up the Middle East or foreign adventurism in Europe or Asia. It doesn't matter what the subject is, whether it's healthcare or infrastructure, our money is better spent there than on sprawling our military around the globe. Redirecting $300 billion per year from military spending to healthcare, education and infrastructure would be a good start. Our healthcare system has failed, it's time to start using Federal power to squeeze costs out of the system and implement universal coverage. There's no reason we can't reduce healthcare costs by 15-25% over time given how out-of-line our expenses are, which helps pays for expanding Medicaid up the ladder to achieve universal coverage. Biden should be abusing executive orders like crazy in this direction. - Continue to gather as many allies in Asia as possible and get them pointed in the same direction as a cooperative. Pull NATO's interests into Asia a bit more. The US is already doing some of this (eg with Vietnam, India and other traditional allies in the region), but it's not easy, China has lots of carrots to offer as well as sticks. The US has already peaked in Asia, China's influence in Asia will get far larger yet. The US can only slightly slow down China's gains in Asia, not stop the process. The goal should be to make China's adventurism very expensive, that's the best that can be realistically accomplished. - Invest more heavily into accelerating the development of regional rivals to China, including India and Vietnam. Our interests align on this matter. The more they can do for themselves, the less we have to do in the region, the better. For the same reason it was in the US interest for France, Britain and West Germany to reboot quickly after WW2 (less need for the US presence in Europe), it's in our interests for India, Vietnam, Indonesia, etc to develop even faster. You'll notice my plan isn't focused primarily on confronting China in Asia. That's because that shouldn't be our focus at all. No more than it should be the focus of Germany, Britain or France. The primary focus should be on improving the US, not worrying about containing China. We can't contain China. The CCP isn't going anywhere, and we can't dictate human rights within China. Trying to deny reality isn't useful in such a context. You can't stop them from doing whatever they want to Hong Kong, you can't force them to adopt some other system of government, you can't stop genocide within their borders if they're intent on it, just as you can't force them to accept freedom of expression/religion/press/speech. The US & Co. can't even accomplish such aims in weak nations like Myanmar, North Korea or Cuba. The US as a superpower has long been living beyond its means. Those days are coming to an end one way or another, just look at the credit card bill. We'll be well served to focus on the quality of life of our people for a change. |
Accepting reality? Years of life in China will make anybody lose touch with one, especially living in the most Potemkin town of them all.
> It's why whenever people talk about ganging up on China, they're always extremely vague about it. That's because it's entirely bunk. Do something! What? Something! Do a thing! Which thing? The thing! It's identical to bumper stickers that (used to) say: Save Tibet, it's largely empty virtue signaling or wishful thinking. It's not realistic.
First, the West has a giant arsenal of means not simply "to do something", but outright destroy China as a state. The West remains the preeminent political, military, economic power of the world by a giant extend, way more than China, Russia, Iran + 10 other rouge states combined. You don't "contain" your enemy, you defeat him, this is how the West needs to start thinking.
— It's a giant power, the West only needs to use it. The West has a way more means than China has to do anything to the West. The direct military attack being only one of many things possible on the list. It's just the Western unwillingness to admit that it can do something, because admitting to it will be be followed by a compulsion of doing so.
West's internal problems are a malaise of heart, while its problem with China is a malaise of mind. The material problems can be fixed, but what's being kept created by your own mind cannot: the Western fixation on impotent "realpolitik China strategy" is one of this kind, and its fixation on China's economic strength is another.
China as a state entity existing in a physical world is much a lesser threat, and danger than the China which exists in the heads of Western elites, and all kinds of wormtongue "strategy advisers", Kissingers, and co.
I'm fully agreeing on the point that the West can't win without a dramatic change happening inside their heads first. For the West to defeat China, first it will need to defeat itself, and own weaknesses, all what holds it back.
Foreign policy making wormridden by "political strategists," pathological addiction to backstabbing of critical allies, refusal to look at politics from classic military dimension;
Elite culture dominated by defeatist people selling wholesale "China model" koolaid like Tim Cook, and Sundarajan Pichai, universal hostility to useful business, and industry by political backstabbers, useful idiots, and wanton saboteurs-profiteers;
The giant Trump electorate, you will have to find a way to live along with these people, but that doesn't mean surrendering to them! Propaganda of inaction, and isolationism exactly of this kind led to US staying out of WW2 until it was tool late;