More US Eyepoking of China with New Congresscritter Visit to Taiwan; What Will China Do Next?

Wellie, the US seems unable to stop itself from trying to assert itself despite its status as a declining hegemon, at the expense of its putative causes. The latest is yet another provocation of China over Taiwan, apparently to rub in that we can and will.

In a tiny bit of “in fairness,” this trip, a visit to Taiwan by legislators led by Senator Ed Markey, was previously scheduled. But coming a mere twelve days after the Pelosi visit, it looks designed to show the government in Beijing as unable to prevent American meddling. From Associated Press:

A delegation of American lawmakers arrived in Taiwan on Sunday,…. led by Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, will meet President Tsai Ing-wen and other officials, as well as members of the private sector, to discuss shared interests including reducing tensions in the Taiwan Strait and investments in semiconductors.

BWAAAH! “Reducing tensions”? How about virtual visits rather than junkets?

Back to the story:

Markey, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations East Asia, Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Subcommittee, and members of the delegation will reaffirm the United States’ support for Taiwan.

The other members of the delegation are Republican Rep. Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen, a delegate from American Samoa, and Democratic House members John Garamendi and Alan Lowenthal from California and Don Beyer from Virginia…..

Campbell, speaking on Friday, said the U.S. would send warships and planes through the Taiwan Strait in the next few weeks and is developing a roadmap for trade talks with Taiwan that he said the U.S. intends to announce in the coming days.

Trade talks? So more official visits? And what about more weapons?

To back up a bit, even though China is a no-bones-about-it authoritarian government, it’s not hard to see that the US’s tender ministrations are about projecting power, and not about the well-being of the Taiwanese.

Recall that China had and still has no formal timetable for Taiwan unification. Some statements have suggested an aspiration for that happening by 2049. That’s an eternity.

Petyr Baelish, in print version of Game of Thrones, put off an accounting of sorts for the death of Lady Arryn by a year. Sansa asked what would the delay accomplish. Baelish replied, “A lot can happen in a year,” and listed particulars.

With China, the particulars that could put off off Taiwan’s day of reckoning include crises and dislocations on the mainland produced by global warming (water scarcity, parts of the country becoming uninhabitable due to extreme heat, food shortages), dustups with important neighbors (India and/or Russia) taking priority, or domestic dissent, say due to pollution, a fall in living standards, etc. And even if China did firm up and stick to its original 2049 target, that translates into Taiwan having things stay more or less the way they are if they don’t make a fuss and embarrass the government in Beijing.

The US is already messaging that Taiwan should be happy to become the next Ukraine-in-the-making, as if that were working out well for Ukraine:

Note the “win” is merely inflicting heavy losses (as if that were happening to Russia, as opposed to Ukraine), not being the victor.

Interestingly, the commentary on Twitter is subdued, with a much higher level of opposition to the visit than I anticipated. but mainly from the powerless left”

I don’t see anywhere near the same level of English-language expressions of support for this visit as I do either disapproval or tweets of MSM stories.

The Republicans on the other hand are going after Pelosi. As Carolinian put it, “This story getting big ink in the rightistsphere.” From Daily Mail, EXCLUSIVE: Nancy Pelosi’s son – who secretly joined mom on her controversial trip to Taiwan – is a top investor in Chinese telecoms company, despite House Speaker’s campaign to tackle China’s corporate influence in the US:

Nancy Pelosi’s son is the second largest investor in a $22million Chinese company whose senior executive was arrested in a fraud investigation, DailyMail.com can reveal, raising questions about his secretive visit to Taiwan with his mother.

As well as investing, Paul Pelosi Jr, 53, also worked for the telecoms company, Borqs Technologies, in a board or consultancy role, Securities and Exchange Commission documents show.

He was awarded 700,000 shares for his services, making him the fifth largest shareholder in the company. After other insiders sold stock in June 2021 he became the second largest – more stock than one of its two co-founders and topped only by CEO Pat Sek Yuen Chan.

The Internet of Things venture was worth a lot more before the arrest. After being late to sell out, Pelosi fils is no longer in the top ten shareholder list, according to the latest SEC filing.

One wonders why such a small-fry company, even at a higher valuation, went public. And this is all a bit awkward for Pelosi mere since she’s backed legislation limiting the access of Chinese companies to US markets. The fog around what Pelosi the younger did to get his stake is not comforting. Again from Daily Mail:

According to Borqs’ SEC filings in June 2021, Pelosi Jr. acquired 700,000 shares of the company in an ’employee benefit plan’.

‘These are shares that were acquired by our officers, directors and affiliates, or that were acquired by our employees or consultants, under an employee benefit plan. Such officers, directors, affiliates, employees and consultants are the selling stockholders identified in the reoffer prospectus,’ the document said.

It’s not as if the Pelosi has relevant-looking skills aside from access to his mother:

Pelosi Jr. was appointed to the boards of two lithium mining companies in 2020 and 2021. His appointments have drawn new scrutiny following his visit to Taiwan, a lithium mining capital.

He joined the advisory board of Nevada-based Altair International Corp in December 2020. The job involves ‘making explicit introductions between Altair and potential strategic partners in the various industries of interest for expansion,’ according to a press release at the time.

In January 2021 he also became the president of EVSX Corp, a subsidiary of St-Georges Eco-Mining Corp.

A St-Georges press release said the newly formed subsidiary is ‘dedicated to electric vehicle battery recycling and future partnerships in the development of lithium mineral resources.’

At a Capitol Hill press conference Wednesday Nancy denied her son went on her Asian trip for business, telling reporters: ‘His role was to be my escort.’…

DailyMail.com has previously revealed Pelosi Jr.’s business partners have been involved in six federal investigations and some were convicted of fraud. Investigators have not accused the Speaker’s son of being involved in the criminal activity and he was never charged.

Pelosi Jr.’s last job related to telecoms was also for a company mired in a criminal investigation.

In 2007 Pelosi Jr. was appointed vice president of a company that was embroiled in an investigation of scam calls that targeted senior citizens, whose CEO was a top Democrat donor.

The speaker’s son got a $180,000 job as Senior Vice President at data company InfoUSA, despite already holding a full-time position as a home loan officer at Countrywide Home Loans in San Mateo and having no experience in database marketing.

Now this is all good seedy fun, but by itself, this goes nowhere. However, the conservative tabloids before the Pelosi visit were trying to position it as motivated by her desire to take the spotlight off her role in presumed insider trading (the related spin was that she was going to get even more investment intel in Taiwan).

However, the Republicans hammering about Biden family corruption as a motivator for the war in Ukraine1 and the escalation in Taiwan does give them a wee bit of wriggle room if they want to try to find a graceful exit. Not that I expect that to happen. Both sides are getting more and more dug in.

China’s problem is it is playing to three audiences: Taiwan leadership, the Chinese public, and the US. Since the US is not listening and not agreement capable, the only way to get through to us is via force, and not mere threat displays. However, China is unlikely to go there until other measures have failed.

As Brian Berletic of New Atlas pointed out, China can bring Taiwan to heel pronto by stopping trading with it. 42% of Taiwan exports went to the mainland or Hong Kong last year, and 22% of imports came from them. All China has to do is go a bit off its usual script and play Japanese: throw up all sorts of passive-aggressive red tape that brings trade to a near halt.

Unfortunately, China also has the issue of appearances, um, face with its own citizens and with Taiwan. So that backs it into needing to engage in at least a tit for tat. Sanctioning the five Congresscritters does not seem adequate.

My first guess was that China would increase the frequency of military drills in Taiwan air space, unannounced, so as to create uncertainty over flights to the island. And better yet, any future stealthy US bigwig visitors might have to cool their heels in an intermediate airport waiting fo flights to resume.

China is not yet going that far. The immediate response was more bristling. From NDTV:

China said Monday it had organised fresh military drills around Taiwan, as a delegation of visiting United States lawmakers were set to meet the island’s leader just weeks after a similar trip by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi heightened fears of conflict.

The unannounced two-day trip came after Beijing sent warships, missiles and jets into the waters and skies around Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy that China’s leaders claim and have vowed to one day seize….

The bipartisan trip sparked a caustic response from Beijing, which said it had Monday carried out “combat readiness patrol and combat drills in the sea and airspace around Taiwan island”.

“This is a solemn deterrent against the US and Taiwan for continuing to play political tricks and undermining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” Shi Yi, spokesman for the Chinese military’s Eastern Theater Command, said in a statement, promising to “resolutely defend national sovereignty”.

And a fresh story from the official organ Global Times, US keeps provoking tensions in Straits with lawmakers’ sneaky visit, to face ‘firm countermeasures’:

The latest visit is closely influenced by Pelosi’s visit nearly two weeks ago. It shows that the US has ignored China’s stern warnings and will have to face severe punishment due to its egregious provocations, Zhang Tengjun, deputy director of the Department for Asia-Pacific Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times on Sunday.

However, the delegation’s visit, which was only made public at the last minute when they arrived in a sneaky and stealthy manner, exposed their diffidence in triggering anger from the Chinese mainland, said Zhang.

The latest US move can be seen as defiance of China’s stern response, including military drills, an expert specializing in China-US relations told the Global Times on condition of anonymity on Sunday. “It can be seen that the US has become stuck in the mind-set of making trouble and sabotaging China-US ties so as to make itself a so-called lead player in the Western Pacific region.”

….The country will make them know that those who play with fire will perish by it and the US must pay the price for its own mistake, said Zhang.

On the surface, there’s not much new here. However, China’s military drills resulted in this delegation having to make a more secretive visit than Pelosi did. And the Chinese officialdom may have also worked out that raising the specter of all sorts of things it might do to prevent Pelosi’s visit worked against them when they chose instead to show that they could tighten a noose around Taiwan. So now they are issuing more general threats: “severe punishment….perish by fire.”

Another Global Times story, this an editorial, took note of US efforts to start a chip war and predicted it would fail:

If the US is intended to decouple itself from China in a “chip war,” it will have to rope in other allies to form a technological iron curtain that effectively end up splitting the current global supply chain into two. Yet, it is highly questionable whether the US has the ability to pull the whole world into its “chip war.” In fact, even the long-brewing CHIPS Act has faced questions on its effectiveness and sustainability, not to mention other export control measures….

If Washington is determined to keep the so-called “chip war” going, it must be ready for China to fight back.

China uses a large number of chips to manufacture end products like electronics and auto parts, and a large amount of the final products are exported to the rest of the world, including the US. If the US continues its suppression on the supplies of semiconductor-related products and technologies to China, it may eventually contribute to disruption in the manufacturing sector, which will not only affect China but also weigh down the US supply chain.

Given the scale and capacity of Chinese manufacturing, there is no other country that can replace China’s role, which is why a decoupling from China for US semiconductor supply chain is impossible.

Your humble blogger is skeptical that the idea of bringing semiconductor production home will be sustained. American companies and executives are greedy and want high returns. They are allergic to highly-capital intensive activities and fabs are very capital intensive. And the US is also squeamish about industrial policy, which means the nature and level of support for any “reshoring” efforts are likely to change over time due to shifts in fashion and personnel in charge so as to produce enough uncertainty as to hobble any effort.

And that’s before the US whinging about China’s Covid policy, which is really whinging about the impact of their off and on lockdowns on US supply chains, is a vivid reminder of how dependent US firms are on reliable output from China.

The US and China look more and more to be playing a game of chicken over Taiwan. And no one in a position to do so has the common sense to try to change the terms of engagement.

_____

1 Mind you, this makes little sense as an impetus save as contributing to the US not questioning the logic of getting deeply in bed with a wildly corrupt, and therefore presumably not terribly capable country. However, you could see Zelensky or member of his circle having kompromat on Hunter or Joe as making it hard for the US to exit.

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44 comments

  1. timbers

    Maybe the best approach – if it comes to a military approach – is for China to do what is suggested Russia might do to capture large cities like Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia – encircle and strangle until they surrender. If the US attack, China responds to US only.

  2. Bart Hansen

    Her son’s many nice jobs may explain why Pelosi hangs on to her job year after year. Those jobs may be sunsetted upon her leaving the House.

    1. Rolf

      People in power, they’ll do anything to keep their crown

      Nancy Pelosi & Family.
      Joseph Biden & Family.
      Mitch McConnell & Family.
      The Clinton Family.
      The Manchin Family.
      Kelly Loeffler & Family.
      David Perdue & Family.
      Richard Burr & Family.

      And the list goes on. And on. And on.

      1. Glen

        If I had to choose between the Mafia or these new political crime/graft families/foundations – I’ll take the Mafia.

        1. John Zelnicker

          Glen – Exactly.

          At least the Mafia keep their word and are clear about where they stand.

          1. Glen

            Plus, the nation was effective at policing the Mafia. How does your nation police crime and graft by the people that run the nation? It’s a much more difficult problem to eradicate, although it has been done in the past. What we have now is like the trans nation version of the machine politics from earlier America.

            Targeting such corrupt people during voting, no matter what party, to be voted out of office should make it clear to any political party that such blatant graft/corruption will not be tolerated by the public.

          2. Rolf

            Yes, quite agree. Organized crime (whether truly organized or not) is never under any illusions regarding the legitimacy of their endeavors. The political PMC, and the Democrats in particular, seem to regard their grift as some sort of moral goodness, a deserved reward of their inherent righteousness, which the unenlightened are simply too dim to recognize.

      2. DisinfectantSunlight

        Missed the brand new addition: Obama and family pulling the string behind the screen.

    2. Gregorio

      God forbid the family would be forced to suffer by on that measly $100+ million dollars in assets that they have struggled to scrape together during the matriarch’s tenure?

  3. Joe Well

    If noticing that COVID 19 originated in China made one a racist because that would feed into attacks on Asian Americans (excuse me, the AAPI community), what about ratcheting up tensions and potentially starting a war with China? #stopaapihate

      1. Rolf

        OMG. From the yahoo report:

        “When I was a little girl, I was told at the beach if I dug a hole deep enough, we would reach China, so we’ve always felt a connection there.”

        These are prepared remarks? Ones, given the expense of this trip, to which she’d given some care, some thought? I can’t even. Why do her handlers even let her?

        As we used to say when I was a kid: she’s a schmuck. This is what happens when your “career” is spent drinking your own political bathwater.

  4. The Rev Kev

    The Chinese may be wary of salami tactics like the US/NATO did to Russia and which they are already trying out on China. So one week it is the third in line to the Presidency going to a visit for some duty-free in Taiwan, the next a bunch of Congress critters and pretty soon you have Kamala flying in herself maybe to be followed by old Joe. With troops you have about 40 trainers already there which gets followed up by a base where troops fly in and out so that there is never a “permanent” presence and before you know it, you have a US military tripwire based in Taiwan. Already you have ships making constant “visits” to the Chinese coastline and US aircraft flying patrols at the borders. Add to that scores of military exercises in countries that border China so you have a constant ratcheting up of pressure on China and never backing down. But China has seen this movie before so may be going for a different ending.

  5. Stephen

    Gosh, the parallels with Ukraine are just so uncanny. Both are kind of being pumped up as mini me acceptable and provocative states versus their bigger siblings, both are (or “were” in the case of Ukraine) heavily dependent on trade with that bigger sibling and for some reason large sections of the local elites seem keen to commit some form of suicide in service to Uncle Sam. Oh, and various senior US politicians or their offspring have personal interests there.

    I guess a couple of differences are that Taiwan is genuinely successful as a state and even more challenging for the US to support given that no NATO state is right on the border. Sneaky bigwig visits aside; China can cut it off,

    Why local Taiwanese elites would support any of these US activities is even more perplexing than the case of Ukraine. 2049 as a target is clearly a good way to put off immediate action, even if the Chinese are as long term as we think they are. As a comparison, if Nicola Sturgeon were to say that Scottish independence needed to happen by 2057 to forestall the three hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Act of Union then we would assume she had given up!

    More seriously, is there a queue of client states wanting the US to apply the Ukraine play book to them? If so,it is not a queue I want to be part of.

    1. Deak

      The other day a friend and I were speculating as to why so many states leaders seem willing to sabotage their own country to satisfy the whims of the US hegemon. I have no evidence for this but our guess was that the US must provide a substantial amount of funding through cut outs or interested third parties (corporations, NGOs) to both client country political parties and leaders, and so these decisions are just service paid for. Again I have no evidence that’s the case but it seemed the most logical conclusion given the range of different countries across different geographies and cultures making the same decisions

  6. Eclair

    I read through the above right after finishing the post on medically vulnerable families. The thought of the upper crust’s kids picking up those $180,000 a year positions, in areas where they have no experience, on top of their full time jobs (or the extra $20k per month position on the board of a gas company in another country for a guy who can’t even remember where he dropped off his laptop for repair), while other kids’ families have to scrape up gas money to drive them for their cancer treatments, is depressing beyond words.

    Is the universe run by a joker or trickster god? Loki or Coyote?

    1. John Wright

      The actions of our elected elite indicate that they don’t do a lot (or any) shopping at Home Depot, Costco, Target or Walmart.

      If our politicians did some shopping at any of these places, they would see “Made in China” on most everything and few products from Taiwan.

      The USA is now in a the position of a neighbor who sold/gifted his fabrication/manufacturing tools to another neighbor and then decides to pick a fight with that neighbor.

      These USA politicians may see an unexpected backlash, but it may be from the American consumer who finds Chinese made consumer goods in short supply.

      After the Afghanistan pull-out, I thought that Joe Biden had done something wise and good for the USA/World.

      But that feeling was short lived as Biden is apparently hell-bent on irritating two capable opponents.

      He hasn’t seemed to learn that even with less capable opponents, the USA doesn’t prevail.

      And maybe the FIRE economy of the USA is incendiary rather than sustainable…

  7. John R Moffett

    I wonder when or if all the corruption, nepotism and warmongering in our government gets people mad enough to vote the septuagenarians and octogenarians out of office, rather than returning them to their lairs for more rounds of nepotism, corruption and warmongering?

    1. jan van mourik

      But would there be that choice? With the two party system, doesn’t happen to often that a real challenge comes along from within the party, like AOC. And 3d party still doesn’t seem feasible.

      1. witters

        With the two party system, doesn’t happen to often that a real challenge comes along from within the party, like AOC. Good Lord, that’s some semantic spin on “real challenge.”

  8. fresno dan

    Your humble blogger is skeptical that the idea of bringing semiconductor production home will be sustained. American companies and executives are greedy and want high returns. They are allergic to highly-capital intensive activities and fabs are very capital intensive. And the US is also squeamish about industrial policy, which means the nature and level of support for any “reshoring” efforts are likely to change over time due to shifts in fashion and personnel in charge so as to produce enough uncertainty as to hobble any effort.
    =============================================
    the fundamental US policy is for the rich to get richer. It is paramount, even above the MIC. To paraphrase Marx, the capitalists politicians’ sons will invest the millions with which the Chinese military will supplant the US military

    1. Louis Fyne

      US-sourced raw materials production can’t be done at pre-2022 global prices given US environmental regs. 100% guaranteed

      capital intensive, long-term intensive, litigation-intensive.

    2. JustTheFacts

      “Capitalists will sell you the rope with which you will hang them.” was a common quote (by Lenin) in China in the 1970s. Not much has changed.

  9. Louis Fyne

    Supposedly the next transit of a US Navy ship through the Strait of Taiwan is still planned and will happen soon.

    That will be the real test on how much the US wants to poke China and how much the dragon wants to burn those playing with fire..

    1. ambrit

      I remember reading about the American and Soviet navies playing games of “chicken” on the high seas back during the Cold War 1.0, usually in the Mediterranean Sea.
      Look for China to resurrect that old “game” in the Taiwan Strait.
      China did an aerial version of that “game” in the past. One instance ended in a collision between a PLA Airforce fighter jet and an American Surveillance plane.
      See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hainan_Island_incident

  10. Bawb the Revelator

    Excuse my bad taste but two embarrassingly bottom feeding slugs like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer leading Congressional Democrats gives me a new appreciation for the strong stomachs of The Squad, Bernie Sanders, Liz Warren and a few more. In their places I would be at death’s door from reflex projectile vomiting

    1. Dr. John Carpenter

      Funny, I haven’t heard any of those on your list speaking out against Mama Bear…I mean Pelosi’s or Schumer’s antics. But let a Republican do the same and they’ll be front and center with the complaints. Somehow I doubt their stomachs are much bothered.

    2. John Wright

      From May 12, 2022 at https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/05/12/qdsd-m12.html

      “The four representatives who are members of the Democratic Socialists of America, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman, all voted for the Ukraine war funding.”

      “The Democratic Party support for the war in Ukraine is across the board. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, the “democratic socialist” and one-time advocate of “political revolution,” issued a statement urging immediate action to provide arms and money to Kiev. “We should always have a debate,” he said, “but the problem is that Ukraine is in the middle of a very intense war right now. I think every day counts, and I think we have to respond as strongly and vigorously as we can.””

      None seemed to have any problem “stomaching” the funding of another war overseas that may lead to many more (non-American) deaths and destruction.

      To bad that Madeline Albright is dead and cannot say “We think the price is worth it”.

  11. Polar Socialist

    Note the “win” is merely inflicting heavy losses (as if that were happening to Russia, as opposed to Ukraine), not being the victor.

    To be fair to the WSJ, in Ukraine it is the smaller army that is inflicting heavy losses on the bigger army. At the start of the operation the ratio was something like 1.4:1 to Ukraine, but after the 4-5 mobilization waves (and pressing men from churches and gas stations) and Russians rotating troops to R&R the ratio may have been even 3:1 for Ukraine.

    If the Russians are rotating back (as we’re led to believe in Kherson and Kharkiv areas) and Ukraine has suffered casualties according to the “leaked” documents, the ratio could still be somewhere around 2:1 for the Ukraine. Of course, actual firepower has been asserted to be something like 40:1 to Russia/Allies.

    Caveat: All numbers presented above are assumptions based on partial information and unproved guestimates.

    1. Yves Smith Post author

      What is dodgy is the assertion of “heavy losses” on the Russian side. The BBC has repeatedly tried to find soldiers who died in the SMO. They hired stringers to go all over Russia to find grave markers and death notices and other records. They were very disappointed to find only 4,010 as of July 1: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61987945

      In fairness, it’s the DPR and LPR militias that have done the bulk of the bloodletting, but they don’t seem deterred. Denis Pushilin, head of the DPR, as SPIEF in June, acted as if it was a matter of course that the DPR militia would continue in the war beyond clearing Donbass, the Banderites needed to be routed.

      While that is likely an undercount, given the BBC method, I don’t think by huge amount. They worked hard to find deaths. And I can’t imagine families would tolerate soldiers disappearing and presumed dead and not having that commemorated.

      1. Deak

        Hi Yves, what’s a stringer if you don’t mind me asking? I can kind of guess from context but it’s not a term I’ve come across before and it sounds quite interesting

        1. The Rev Kev

          ‘Stringer’

          A newspaper correspondent who is retained on a part-time basis to report on events in a particular place.

          e.g. “papers relied increasingly on locally based stringers and news agencies”

  12. Butch

    The Europeans one upped Washington in the sanctions against Russia. In a heroic bid to prove Washington can make it’s knaves suffer as badly as European peons, we present you “Chip War!” (Best sung to NOFX “Glass War”)

  13. TimD

    All China has to do is raise the prices of its exports and/or shed a bit of the debt that the US owes it. Not a lot, just create a little economic pain – there is nothing the US can do about it. Inflation affects voters way more than saber rattling over a country nobody cares about.

    1. Yves Smith Post author

      China has been cutting its US Treasury holdings. Hasn’t had any impact on inflation or bond yields.

      And as for raising prices (much), fewer goods sold = less employment in China, when the economy is slowing and the government’s hold on legitimacy is at least maintaining living standards.

      China would do better to choke supply in a narrow but key category to show it can.

  14. Carolinian

    Some of us out here in the peanut gallery wonder why any of this is happening–Ukraine as well as Taiwan. What do these far away and somewhat obscure places have to do with us?

    Perhaps it’s simply that foreign meddling is where the big bribes are. The Clintons are also big on it and have their own multimillions to rival Pelosi’s 250 mil (estimated). And don’t forget Trump had his own nepotism angle with his son in law–married to his favorite daughter–using his family connection to rescue his failing NY real estate speculation.

    And in that sense US power and influence could be our own “resource curse” that tempts smaller but well heeled actors all over the world to use us for their purposes. Just dish out the cash. Spiro Agnew once fell over literal sacks of cash. Modern methods are a lot more subtle and sophisticated.

  15. Gusgus 2021

    I never understood how the US thinks it could wage any major war …..since the chinese make alot of the machinery that makes the weapons for the US , things like end mills or welders CNC machine chassis etc etc
    There is no industrial base,even worse is skilled workers are getting hard to find after decades of ruining the industry .

    1. Louis Fyne

      ironically?? whether they realize it or not, DC, the White House, the Pentagon have fallen into the same trap as 1938 Tokyo or 1938 Berlin….war w/its peers will be short and be determined by one or a few decisive battle(s) with victory guaranteed by their wonder-weapons.

  16. Mikel

    “With China, the particulars that could put off off Taiwan’s day of reckoning include crises and dislocations on the mainland produced by global warming (water scarcity, parts of the country becoming uninhabitable due to extreme heat, food shortages), dustups with important neighbors (India and/or Russia) taking priority, or domestic dissent, say due to pollution, a fall in living standards, etc…”

    All things that could happen in the USA as well. Unless the establishment thinks the “vaccines” make them immune.

    Or they think they just have to sprinkle around some magic juice….

    Can’t help but notice the mask wearing pic of the representatives in Taiwan. Shows how they behave when they actually want to show or feign respect for lives.
    .
    All of that investment in mining by the Pelosi’s…step right up to get your big loans for the EV$. They probably aren’t the only officials (and family) with such mining investments.

  17. Synoia

    Nest: A Chinese Blockade, sea and perhaps air, around Taiwan.

    The US actions have all the appearance of ” When in trouble at home, go adventuring abroad.

    The US President, Mr Biden, has bad polling, and little effect at home due to the Senate, which only leaves him and his acolytes actions abroad, preferably by not killing many US young men.

    It is brillant, to cause a major war and not have to use one’s own troops, as the US has achieved europs, with loss of value for Europe’s Industry, making any recovery dependant on US money, an enslaved Europe and much “profit” repatriated for the US’ “Investors” pleasure.

    With friends like that who needs enemies.

  18. Paula

    Please write a story about hydrogen cars, etc. A man believed he was murdered because he invented a hydrogen run vehicle. His brother witnessed him running out of the restaurant where they had met interested sponsors of his invention, after he drank something ordered and ran outside declaring he’d been poisoned before he collapsed and died. THIS is our world and the one we must fight against. We don’t need to kill the earth with mining these minerals.

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