Welcome To The Long Game Folks

[Yooper]

In this post on China (and the international community's assessment), The Economist, and U.S. foreign policy* CDRSalamander hits not just a home run, but a Grand Slam:

Welcome to the Long Game Folks

I used to quote from The Economist more here in the past than I have the last few years. Reasons are - and sad to say about a publication ...

cdrsalamander.blogspot.com

Here's a snip (but do him and yourself a favor and click over):

When The Economist is having second thoughts [regarding China], perhaps we are seeing a turn;

There were moments during a recent gathering of Americans, Chinese and Europeans, invited to Stockholm to discuss China’s rise and the new world order, when Chaguan wondered whether anyone would say anything cheerful. At last, halfway through two days of doomy talk about trade wars and some scratchy exchanges about whether Westerners have a right to criticise China’s leaders, a Chinese participant sounded an optimistic note. Brexit is an opportunity for China, he enthused—once out of the European Union, Britain will need all the friends it can get.

That was as upbeat as discussions got at the Stockholm China Forum, a semi-annual meeting for politicians, officials, ambassadors, business bosses, scholars and journalists hosted by Sweden’s foreign ministry and the German Marshall Fund, a think-tank. The forum was founded to bridge transatlantic differences over China policy after a crisis in 2004, when France enraged America by proposing to lift an eu arms embargo on China imposed after the crushing of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. Chaguan has joined the meetings since 2008 and has seen them turn testy before, despite endless supplies of good coffee and Swedish cinnamon buns. At a forum in 2018 Americans and Europeans sparred over President Donald Trump’s foreign policy. This time was different. A shared fatalism marked panel discussions and offstage conversations. There was a common conviction that China is not about to change its model of authoritarian state capitalism.

You think?

Salamander is quite correct throughout. An the closing paragraphs (after the above snip) are the extra RBIs that made this article a Grand Slam.

* Yes, I use the Oxford comma. It makes for better (and therefore, superior) writing!

--- End of line (MCP)

 

[Gilligan]

Sal is seldom off point.

 

[Yooper]

Agreed. Almost without exception clear thinking and well-presented.

--- End of line (MCP)

 

[stgislander]

Love the Oxford comma.

 

[This_person]

Love the Oxford comma.

 

[This_person]

 

[BernieP]

Here's the big difference between the west and China.
In the west, there is government policy which is driven by what the business community wants.
In China the business community does what the state wants, it's the economic and industrial arm of the military.
The Chinese are loving the influence of Open Borders and the hatred of Trump. It lowers the will of the public to support any military action that might be called for. So what do the Chinese do, keep pushing. Buying influence around the world with the cash Americans provide.