An interesting piece, but a lot of the evidence is circumstantial, held up with a goodly dose of anti-Chinese rhetoric - which reminds me of something.

I stopped reading when they referred to the Belt and Road Initiative as proof of Chinese Hegemonic intentions.

That's not how that works. The point of extending trade routes over land via MagLev rail is not hegemony, but ingenuity. What happens is that new economies spring up along the Newly erected Silk routes, and both China and the client-states benefit. The classic Win-win. This sort of planning is arguably to defeat a centuries-old grip on nautical trade-routes, which the USA and UK actively patrolled with their vast ships and cannons. Anyone remember the Opium Wars? No? Well the Chinese kinda do. Also, as an afterthought - why would the USA be worried that China is opening new markets? Oh and then there are those naughty pipelines, divertin' energy to economies who partake in those ventures. Yikes - one can't have plebs getting hold of energy.

The nautical trade-routes made it so that landlocked Central-Asian countries ended up impoverished after centuries of neglect: to them, the new Chinese MagLev is a life-line. I mean think of it: Develop trade-routes to raise whole countries of people living in dirt-huts, to become active members of the global economy. What a great place to start making and selling stuff. But that is not hegemony, not even by a long stalk.

In any case - to address the central tenet - that Biden and co. are under Xi's thumb - It seems that this hypothesis comes into question because Blinken purposefully went to China to tell them to stop Russia being so mean. So it appears as if Blinken had the idea that the USA could tell China what to do. This kind of defeats the idea that USA is within Chinese control. The lack of respect they showed him only marks the event as one of Stop Yapping, thou Chihuahua, 'taint proper. But that does not mean they control anything, just that they are showing disdain. And to be honest, I was cheering on Blinken's crest-fallen face.

The enlightened form of warfare in China is to sit and wait it out, while doing business: No yanking of leashes was necessary, because USA has no financial dominance, besides posturing that is, and the whole world can see their ignominy. So the Chinese dealt a symbolic blow. And fair go - USA has been making a mess of things lately.

An interesting piece, but a lot of the evidence is circumstantial, held up with a goodly dose of anti-Chinese rhetoric - which reminds me of something.

I stopped reading when they referred to the Belt and Road Initiative as proof of Chinese Hegemonic intentions.

That's not how that works. The point of extending trade routes over land via MagLev rail is not hegemony, but ingenuity. What happens is that new economies spring up along the Newly erected Silk routes, and both China and the client-states benefit. The classic Win-win. This sort of planning is arguably to defeat a centuries-old grip on nautical trade-routes, which the USA and UK actively patrolled with their vast ships and cannons. Also, as an afterthoight - why would the USA be worried that China is opening new markets? Oh and then there are those naught pipelines, divertin energy to economies who partake in those ventures. Yikes - one can't have plebs getting hold of energy.

The nautical trade-routes made it so that landlocked Central-Asian countries ended up impoverished after centuries of neglect: to them, the new Chinese MagLev is a life-line. I mean think of it: Develop trade-routes to raise whole countries of people living in dirt-huts, to become active members of the global economy. What a great place to start making and selling stuff. But that is not hegemony, not even by a long stalk.

In any case - to address the central tenet - that Biden and co. are under Xi's thumb - It seems that this hypothesis comes into question because Blinken purposefully went to China to tell them to stop Russia being so mean. So it appears as if Blinken had the idea that the USA could tell China what to do. This kind of defeats the idea that USA is within Chinese control. The lack of respect they showed him only marks the event as one of Stop Yapping, thou Chihuahua, 'taint proper. But that does not mean they control anything, just that they are showing disdain. And to be honest, I was cheering on Blinken's crest-fallen face.

The enlightened form of warfare in China is to sit and wait it out, while doing business: No yanking of leashes was necessary, because USA has no financial dominance, besides posturing that is, and the whole world can see their ignominy. So the Chinese dealt a symbolic blow. And fair go - USA has been making a mess of things lately.

An interesting piece, but a lot of the evidence is circumstantial, held up with a goodly dose of anti-Chinese rhetoric - which reminds me of something.

I stopped reading when they referred to the Belt and Road Initiative as proof of Chinese Hegemonic intentions.

That's not how that works. The point of extending trade routes over land via MagLev rail is not hegemony, but ingenuity. What happens is that new economies spring up along the Newly erected Silk routes, and both China and the client-states benefit. The classic Win-win. This sort of planning is arguably to defeat a centuries-old grip on nautical trade-routes, which the USA and UK actively patrolled with their vast ships and cannons. Also, as an afterthoight - why would the USA be worried that China is opening new markets?

The nautical trade-routes made it so that landlocked Central-Asian countries ended up impoverished after centuries of neglect: to them, the new Chinese MagLev is a life-line. I mean think of it: Develop trade-routes to raise whole countries of people living in dirt-huts, to become active members of the global economy. What a great place to start selling Chinese products. But that is not hegemony, not even by a long stalk.

In any case - to address the central tenet - that Biden and co. are under Xi's thumb - It seems that this hypothesis comes into question because Blinken purposefully went to China to tell them to stop Russia being so mean. So it appears as if Blinken had the idea that the USA could tell China what to do. This kind of defeats the idea that USA is within Chinese control. The lack of respect they showed him only marks the event as one of Stop Yapping, thou Chihuahua, 'taint proper. But that does not mean they control anything, just that they are showing disdain. And to be honest, I was cheering on Blinken's crest-fallen face.

The enlightened form of warfare in China is to sit and wait it out: No yanking of leashes was necessary, because USA has no financial dominance, besides posturing, that is, and the whole world can see their ignominy. So the Chinese dealt a symbolic blow. And fair go - USA has been making a mess of things lately.