Taiwan Strait

^^Here's the main fact you need to know about China: "GDP Annual Growth Rate in China averaged 9.00 percent from 1989 until 2022, reaching an all time high of 18.30 percent in the first quarter of 2021 and a record low of -6.80 percent in the first quarter of 2020."
source: https://tradingeconomics.com/china/g...er%20of%202020.

our prospects in a 1 on 1 with China are declining every year. yes, we can still beat them, but for how long? and what about round 2 after a bruising round 1? domestic industrial capabilities matter, and we will rue the day we outsourced our industry to China. we need a manufacturing re-shoring, and we need it now. if we need to staff our factories with illegals-lets get them some work permits- who don't bitch about earning 12 or 15/hr plus benefits, so be it.

Thomas Friedman has some pretty good insights on the U.S. China relationship, but he doesn't focus enough on why no one trusts China: their own conduct. And great about reshoring silicon chips manufacturing, but he overlooks everything else that needs to be reshored as well: steel plants; rare earth mining; cement production; assembly (as opposed to just design) of smart phones and computers; tool manufacturing; everything for sale in a Home Depot or Wal-Mart; etc. we need to divest ourselves 100% from China and if we need trading partners, find new ones. The original premise was that if our companies can do business in the huge Chinese market, then we'll buy your manufactured goods. That's a total fantasy because American firms had to "partner" with Chinese firms to do business there, so China could openly steal all of our trade secrets. (They also do state-sponsored industrial espionage.) Once they have gathered the needed info, suddenly the American firm starts getting screwed by Chinese government policy favoring local firms, until finally the American firm just abandons the Chinese market. How fucked up is that? Any belief that the Chinese tiger will change its stripes is a Siberian fantasy. We need a full divorce from China, and the sooner, the better.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/14/o...ationship.html

i luv this shit..

memo to china: "hey china, go fuck yourself.."

https://youtu.be/u7l-JyTjN4E

and that's just a part of 1 carrier battle group. we have 10 more where that came from, bitch..

ya this is really a thing. so much for all that wonderful offshoring..

https://www.businessinsider.com/amer...economy-2023-5

so apparently the Chinese have become routinely more aggressive crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait regularly with fighter jet sorties, actually since Pelosi's visit..

https://thediplomat.com/2023/08/sinc...taiwan-strait/

i was thinking maybe we should invite Taiwan to join NATO, but there may be some pushback from our European allies who are more worried about Russia than the fate of Taiwan.

i'm thinking maybe we need to form a new NATO-like alliance for the Pacific, centered around mutual defense in the Pacific Rim and the defense of Taiwan. there are a number of countries, many of which have top-flight militaries, who i think might be interested in a mutual defense pact mainly as a foil to China, but also (crazy) North Korea:

U.S.
India
UK
Japan
S. Korea
Indonesia
Vietnam
Taiwan
Thailand
Australia
The Phillipines
Singapore
Myanmar
Bangladesh
Laos
Canada
other NATO allies?

i think now's the time to act. China's military is catching up to us. if we form a great wall of defense around Taiwan now, there won't be a damn thing in the world China will have the guts to do about it. the longer we wait, the dicier it will get.

So

this is what i'm talking about..

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...h-korea-japan/