On My Radar: Euthanasia of the Rentier - btbirkett@gmail.com - Gmail

On My Radar: Euthanasia of the Rentier - btbirkett@gmail.com - Gmail

Jonathan Ward on China You’ll find a link to the full interview by clicking on the picture below. Following are the main take-aways from the interview: Watch what’s happening in the South China Sea and worry about the potential invasion of Taiwan. The world pretty much understands that China’s claims over the entire South China Sea are bogus, concocted through the Communist Party’s reading of history. They have been trying to assert military control through island building over the last seven years, as well as massive military buildup. The good news is the EU is not getting involved; we are looking at the beginning of better transatlantic coordination and an improved understanding of the China issue—including China’s threat to Asia and the world at large. Ward advises a comprehensive approach to dealing with China: Economic engagement that transfers our industrial base to our primary adversary is probably one of the great mistakes of the past 100 years, and we are going to have to reverse that. We have to reduce our engagement to reduce China’s growth, which fuels China’s military and global communist ambitions. We have to make sure the US military budget is sufficiently resourced to deal with both China and Russia. Ultimately, the US is going to have to work with its allies to cut off Beijing from financing for Western technology; rebuild our industrial bases; rebuild the coordination between our countries; form an alliance-based trading system; and isolate Beijing from the wider global economy, which must be done over time.  During the interview, Jonathan was asked about a potential boycott of the coming Winter Olympics in China. He said, “The Olympics should be boycotted. Let’s face it, China’s carrying out a genocide right now and this is the first genocide that we’ve seen from an industrialized nation since Nazi Germany, and there’s really no reason for us to be giving any legitimacy to this regime at this point… Doing business with China, particularly anything that surrounds Xinjiang, is completely unacceptable. This should be a matter of a moral course. We do not accept further engagement with a genocidal regime when it comes to their military buildup, their human rights repression, and their strategic industries. We have the recognize the nature of the conflict we are in.”