Biden is opening 4 new military bases in the Philippines, a new coast guard training base in Indonesia, have worked with Japan to increase their military budget 56%, has pledged military expansion in South Korea, and just this month did $500m in military aid to Taiwan. Does Biden count as one of the liberals who are ignoring China?
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respecting my elders, u and pilger both, where’s the beef?
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I think the Communist Party of China should be overthrown and Xi Jinping very much resembles the lovable children’s character Winnie the Pooh.
(doing my part)
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Those who whistle while they work
Out of time and out of season
What gets broken
help us, benevolent @zikzak Stalin Xi Jinping, we cannot but narrate cynical
specifically, what about his sense for China? lol when China sang to me
This guy checks every box
“China has changed a lot since the 70s!”
“They take such a long view of everything!” BASED ON WHAT, MOTHERFUCKER?
Where do these random burnouts come from? At least Roger Waters made music.
Not watching the video, but being broadly familiar with Pilger’s politics, the willful ignorance he’s talking about is what’s being used by liberals (and conservatives) to justify American militarism vis a vis China. He doesn’t think China is a threat and thinks that the US is trying to pick a fight with China that culminates in a war in the Western Pacific. (I think he’s right about that and I know you disagree).
Ah. I just listened to the video for a couple spots and saw he was talking about how successful he expects China to be and being a threat was consistent, but the interview was painfully slow. I could have watched it on higher speed, but shrug. It’s also confusing as you note to characterize this as something from American liberals specifically. Obviously conservatives are China-hawks too. I did watch a bit of him talking about “liberals” to check if he was using it in the American sense and he was.
There’s a lot of posturing (and spending), but I don’t think there will be a war any time soon. Everyone being too integrated is my reason for thinking that and today I saw that Taiwan is the 6th biggest direct foreign investor source country to China and not far behind the US, which is 4th. I thought that was interesting.
You disagree with Mearsheimer’s belief that China is a bigger threat than the Soviet Union ever was and that American forces need to be stationed in Asia to deter China? His concern about Ukraine is about the US unnecessarily alienating Russia when it needs Russia as an ally against China.
Did I say that?
I thought you were saying that Pilger was right about China not being a threat, which Mearsheimer clearly disagreed with. If not, then you seem to be disagreeing with Mearsheimer’s description of Biden’s policy towards China as containment, which is different from trying to pick a fight.
I’m fairly certain I understand what Mearsheimer believes. Am I misunderstanding you?
I’m not certain what John would think of Biden saying “we will defend Taiwan.” I think it’s reckless and serves no purpose other than provoking China. It’s a huge break with the US China policy for the last 40 years. I don’t know how much of a threat China is but increasing the number of US troops and weapons in Taiwan and explicitly saying that the US will defend Taiwan is incredibly provocative and if they’re not trying to provoke China they’re just shockingly incompetent. Maybe John’s on board with that, you’d have to ask him.
John couldn’t get enough of the line “in America, you can change parties but not policies; in China, you can’t change parties, but you can change policies.”
Real solid right-wing uni-party beliefs.
He seems to think the Chinese people are really satisfied by virtue of his observations walking around the country for a couple days.
brothers and shysters, it can be interesting discussion and not a pissing contest lol
If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world 
Mearsheimer is already on the record as predicting that the US will defend Taiwan and believing that it should defend Taiwan, but he worries that the China will become so strong that it will become impossible for the US to do so. He’d almost certainly say it was bad to say out loud what has been the unspoken American policy towards Taiwan and that it increases the risk of nuclear war, but my guess is that he would probably see it as a foolish attempt at deterrence rather than an intentional provocation of war because his theory suggests that the US will always seek to contain China, without war if possible, regardless of who is in charge.
I’d bet John would admit that he can’t really tell the difference between a foolish and counterproductive attempt at deterrence and willful provocation. I’m sure I can’t.
You can always spot these guys based on the cliches they use. The “you can change the policy just not the party” line is a popular one. There is a truth to it. The government allows online discussion of floated policies and might dump them if they are unpopular with pants-pissing right-wing nationalists. There was a proposal a few years ago to reform the path for foreigners to qualify for permanent residence so that there’s objective criteria (it’s currently “be someone prominent like Starbury”). You can guess the reaction.
Meanwhile on any issue tied to feminism or LGBT rights, it’s like Saudi Arabia and women drivers: the policies are for the most part slowly getting better, but anyone who asks too loudly is a threat to the party and needs to be dealt with.
China is on its way to being the biggest cultural power? China’s blockbuster movie of 2023 is a knockoff of Top Gun that even the domestic audience is embarrassed by. If there’s a single musical act from PRC that you are familiar with, go check if they’re from Taiwan, Hong Kong or are diaspora. No? Check again because I suspect you missed it.
A Chinese stand-up comedian was just arrested for a joke that used a PLA slogan. Wasn’t even mocking the PLA.
China’s on its way to being the world’s biggest cultural power just like the US is on its way to having the best healthcare system.
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