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| | Jin explained that Xi's target is actually to replace the United States as the world's only superpower by 2049. “[Chinese] Ministry of Foreign Affairs keeps on saying [at press briefings] that China loves peace. But no reporters at the press briefings believe this,” Jin said. | | Jin explained that Xi's target is actually to replace the United States as the world's only superpower by 2049. “[Chinese] Ministry of Foreign Affairs keeps on saying [at press briefings] that China loves peace. But no reporters at the press briefings believe this,” Jin said. |
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| | + | ====WTO membership==== |
| | + | [[File:2018 trade deficit.jpg|thumb|500px|right|U.S. trade deficit with China. The difference between the red line and blue line represents an outflow of American wealth - [[capitalism|capital]] that could be used to create American jobs rather than jobs in China and prosperity for the [[Chinese Communist Party]].]] |
| | + | Despite the CCP's human rights abuses in the Tiananmen massacre, no trade sanctions were ever leveled by Western Powers and globalists. China was rewarded for its human rights abuses in 2001, despite the absence of reforms, by being welcomed into the World Trade Organization with full membership and a year later granted [[Most Favored Nation]] trade status by the [[U.S. Congress]]. China formally joined the World Trade Organization ([[WTO]]) in December 2001. |
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| | + | By 2017, the imposition of [[tariff]]s by U.S. President [[Donald J. Trump]] began to redress the imbalance of a half-trillion dollar a year [[trade deficit]] and the outflow of American wealth to China. China's economy was developed over those early decades of the 21st century as a coastal, manufacturing economy entirely dependent on exports. Young people left their home villages in the countryside to seek work in coastal factories. The prosperity was all built on access to the U.S. consumer market, and Americans' appetite for cheap manufactured goods. Scant attention was paid to developing a domestic service sector economy, while the vast interior remained impoverished, and increasingly so as young people abandoned rural agricultural work for urban factory work. |
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| | + | Contrary to Cold War era belief that free trade would encourage non-democratic countries to become more democratic - an argument used to sell globalization - experience ultimately proved free trade only strengthens tyrannical regimes. By 2020, the notion that [[democracy]] and free trade go hand-in-hand had been thoroughly discredited. |
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| | + | ====Belt and Road Initiative==== |
| | + | :{{Main article|One Belt One Road}} |
| | + | Chinese officials are quite open that [[Belt and Road]] is aimed at creating a Eurasia wide Chinese led bloc to counter the United States. |
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| | + | China has been looking to construct a 120-kilometer mega canal cutting through the Isthmus of Kra, the narrowest part of the Malay Peninsula in [[Thailand]]. This will open the [[South China Sea]] to the [[Indian Ocean]], bypassing the Strait of Malacca. What China is eyeing is a canal project in Thailand called the Kra Canal and the Thai leadership seems to be on board. Through this canal, China is trying to reduce dependence on the Strait of Malacca. Currently, 80 percent of China's oil imports passed through the South China Sea. |
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| | + | The Strait of Malacca is a key reason why China has not been able to grow too powerful. Democratic and powers such as India, Australia, and |
| | + | other Southeast Asian nations are well-positioned to cut off Chinese supply lines in the event of a major military confrontation by creating a |
| | + | blockade around the Strait of Malacca. China wants to ensure that its commercial and naval vessels find an alternate route that altogether avoids the Malacca chokepoint while traveling between the Indian and [[Pacific Ocean]]s. This is an overhang of the maritime portion of Xi Jinping's Belt and Road initiative that seeks to connect Southeast Asia with the [[Middle East]] and [[Europe]]. |
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| | + | ====Decoupling==== |
| | + | Decoupling refers to restricting and terminating certain trade relationships with the Chinese Communist Party. Decoupling however, is not limited merely to commerce. It will affect student exchange programs as students from China are hand selected by the Chinese Communist Party and expected to serve the party upon graduation without becoming infected with ideas such as [[democracy]], [[justice]], and [[religion]] while in the United States. American students studying in China likewise are targeted for compromise, blackmail, and ideological subversion. |
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| | + | The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board oversees the Thrift Savings Plan, a retirement fund for federal employees and members of the uniformed military services, with about $600 billion in assets. Money is withheld from federal employees and the military's paychecks to contribute to the fund. Approximately 11% is invested in Chinese companies, some of which produce weapons designed to kill members of the U.S. military.<ref>https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/trump-orders-federal-retirement-money-invested-in-chinese-equities-to-be-pulled</ref> The government of China even prior to the CCP virus outbreak was in violation of U.S. sanctions law and engaged in humanitarian and human rights abuse. |
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| | ====Relations with the United States==== | | ====Relations with the United States==== |