Thursday, October 20, 2022

Michael Roberts — China: Xi’s third term – part 3: chips, dual circulation and imperialism

Important! Decoupling seriously on.

Implications for global trade and world economy uncertain, i.e., has the US thought this through systematically. Judging by the sanctions "war" to date, probably not. Anyway, thinking through changes and likely consequences in a huge complex adaptive system like the world system  is difficult to impossible. All that can be said  at this point is that there will be surprises. This is a huge escalation. One thing can be said with assurance about the Biden administration — Biden and his people are high rollers, escalating existential confrontation with Russia and China simultaneously.

Michael Roberts Blog — blogging from a marxist economist
China: Xi’s third term – part 3: chips, dual circulation and imperialism
Michael Roberts

5 comments:

Peter Pan said...

Another Marxist who cannot bring himself to accept that China is a state capitalist entity.

So when China engages in economic warfare, it's imperialism.

Peter Pan said...

Biden and his posse are more insane than Trump, and as insane as Bannon.

Tom Hickey said...

Biden and his posse are more insane than Trump, and as insane as Bannon.

The Biden Administration is betting the farm on the US being able to continue to impose hegemony. The stakes couldn't be higher — world domination or falling off the pedestal, no longer king of the mountain.

IMHO, the US will use kinetic warfare as a last resort, if it comes to that. That is highly risky when dealing with nuclear capable adversaries, Russia and China, neither side will be willing to lose in the end game.

Peter Pan said...

The US doesn't have the economic clout or the military might to impose hegemony.

The US has had to share the pedestal since 2010 or so.
My measure of that is based on economic power, since Washington's military adventures have not been shown to have had any return on investment. Quite the opposite, as we're now seeing.

The willingness of America to trade with China (and vice versa) has sent a clear message. The cold war, based on ideology, is over. The new game was economic, with Yankee ingenuity versus Asian mercantilism. America is losing this game, partly thru greed and complacency.

As for the future, in a low energy economy, globalism must be replaced with regional and local self-sufficiency. The necessity for this is based on physics, not geopolitics. If geopolitics gets the credit for bringing us there, it's for the best.

Conquest or domination thru war is obsolete in the age of MAD. Because our 'leadership' refuse to accept the new reality, the peace dividend was squandered.

NeilW said...

All this goes to my hypothesis that the US is going through its Edwardian period. Believing it is still the top imperial nation right before everything starts to collapse.

For the UK that ended in the hubris of the Great War, the collapse of the British Empire and the loss of the reserve currency.

Those in the US should study that era of British history well, lest it repeat.