Block, Siteadmin, SkipCaptcha, Upload, Automoderated users, delete, edit, move, nsTeam2RO, nsTeam2RW, nsTeam2_talkRO, nsTeam2_talkRW, protect, rollback, Administrators, template
294,884
edits
Changes
→The BRICS challenge
BRICS is not a [[free trade]] bloc, but members do coordinate on trade matters and have established a policy bank, the New Development Bank, (NDB) to coordinate infrastructure loans. That was set up in 2014 in order to provide alternative loan mechanisms from the [[IMF]] and [[World Bank]] structures, which the members had felt had become too U.S.-centric. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) was set up by China at about the same time for largely the same reasons and to offer alternative financing than that provided by the IMF and World Banks, which were felt to impose political reform policies designed to assist the [[United States]] in return for providing loans.
BRICS is not a [[free trade]] bloc, but members do coordinate on trade matters and have established a policy bank, the New Development Bank, (NDB) to coordinate infrastructure loans. That was set up in 2014 in order to provide alternative loan mechanisms from the [[IMF]] and [[World Bank]] structures, which the members had felt had become too U.S.-centric. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) was set up by China at about the same time for largely the same reasons and to offer alternative financing than that provided by the IMF and World Banks, which were felt to impose political reform policies designed to assist the [[United States]] in return for providing loans.
==Strategic balance==
The new Cold War strategic landscape is characterized by significant modernization programs, with the [[United States]] pursuing a [[policy]] of direct replacement for its aging [[nuclear triad]]. In contrast, other nations have undertaken comprehensive modernization and expansion of their strategic forces.
===Russia===
===Russia===
After passing unanimously in the Lower House, the bill to de-ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CBTB) was approved by the Upper House by 156 votes to zero. The approved legislation was sent to Russian President Vladimir Putin for his signature.
After passing unanimously in the Lower House, the bill to de-ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CBTB) was approved by the Upper House by 156 votes to zero. The approved legislation was sent to Russian President Vladimir Putin for his signature.
Russia has largely completed the modernization of its [[strategic nuclear forces]], exceeding 90%. This includes deploying new systems like the multi-warhead Yars and [[Sarmat]] [[ICBM]]s to replace older, single-warhead models. Their sea-based leg is also being modernized with new Borei-class SSBNs and Bulava SLBMs [[submarine]]s.
===China===
===China===
Tom Fowdy<ref>https://tomfowdy.com/about/</ref> explains:
Tom Fowdy<ref>https://tomfowdy.com/about/</ref> explains:
{{quotebox-float|"States are sensitive to their capabilities relative to other countries and, in response to certain threats or developments, naturally seek to create balance against them. Whilst this is most prominently understood on [[military]] terms, ‘power’ extends to something much broader in practice, especially in today’s world. We don’t just think in terms of bombs or tanks, but everything which pertains to the strength of a state including [[technology]], the [[economy]], industrial assets, [[infrastructure]], [[currency]] and so on. The new competition between the US, its allies and China is different to the original [[Cold War]], in that it is premised on all of those things. This isn’t about who simply has the most [[nuclear weapon]]s, it’s a ‘Cold War of [[globalization]]’ of sorts, where everything contributes to the outcome of who dominates.}}
{{quotebox-float|"States are sensitive to their capabilities relative to other countries and, in response to certain threats or developments, naturally seek to create balance against them. Whilst this is most prominently understood on [[military]] terms, ‘power’ extends to something much broader in practice, especially in today’s world. We don’t just think in terms of bombs or tanks, but everything which pertains to the strength of a state including [[technology]], the [[economy]], industrial assets, [[infrastructure]], [[currency]] and so on. The new competition between the US, its allies and China is different to the original [[Cold War]], in that it is premised on all of those things. This isn’t about who simply has the most [[nuclear weapon]]s, it’s a ‘Cold War of [[globalization]]’ of sorts, where everything contributes to the outcome of who dominates.}}
[[China]]'s [[nuclear]] development continues at a steady pace. Their forces include a diverse and growing array of road-mobile and silo-based [[ICBM]]s like the DF-41 and [[DF-5]]C, and they are constructing new (Strategic, Submarines, Ballistic, Nuclear (SSBNs). The air leg is supported by modernized H-6 bombers, with a new [[stealth bomber]] anticipated. This development enhances the credibility and capability of China's [[strategic]] [[deterrent]].
====Unrestricted warfare====
====Unrestricted warfare====
In 2015, Chinese military scientists discussed how to weaponize SARS coronaviruses to "cause the enemy’s medical system to collapse." In a 263-page document, written by People's Liberation Army scientists and senior Chinese public health officials and obtained by the US State Department during its investigation into the origins of COVID-19, suggests that SARS coronaviruses could herald a "new era of genetic weapons," and noted that they can be "artificially manipulated into an emerging human disease virus, then weaponized and unleashed in a way never seen before."<ref>https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/chinese-military-discussed-weaponizing-covid-2015-cause-enemys-medical-system-collapse</ref>
In 2015, Chinese military scientists discussed how to weaponize SARS coronaviruses to "cause the enemy’s medical system to collapse." In a 263-page document, written by People's Liberation Army scientists and senior Chinese public health officials and obtained by the US State Department during its investigation into the origins of COVID-19, suggests that SARS coronaviruses could herald a "new era of genetic weapons," and noted that they can be "artificially manipulated into an emerging human disease virus, then weaponized and unleashed in a way never seen before."<ref>https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/chinese-military-discussed-weaponizing-covid-2015-cause-enemys-medical-system-collapse</ref>
====Covid pandemic====
===United States===
The [[coronavirus pandemic]] forced companies to re-evaluate whether China was actually a “cheap” supplier at all. To escape high labor costs, such as the [[Obamacare]] employer mandate, American companies were re-locating manufacturing jobs to China, where [[forced labor]] in [[gulag]]s run by the [[Chinese military]] are often employed.
The [[United States]] is modernizing its entire triad—replacing Minuteman III with Sentinel ICBMs, Ohio-class SSBNs with Columbia-class, and developing the B-21 bomber. This program is a one-for-one replacement of existing platforms, maintaining current warhead levels without quantitative expansion.
In response to the global covid pandemic unleashed upon the world, on May 20, 2020, the United States issued a document titled ''United States Strategic Approach to The People’s Republic of China'' that describes the threat the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) poses to all humanity. Th document states in excerpt:
In response to the CCP global pandemic unleashed upon the world, on May 20, 2020, the United States issued a document titled ''United States Strategic Approach to The People’s Republic of China'' that describes the threat the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) poses to all humanity. Th document states in excerpt:
{{quotebox|The CCP promotes globally a value proposition that challenges the bedrock American belief in the unalienable right of every person to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
{{quotebox|The CCP promotes globally a value proposition that challenges the bedrock American belief in the unalienable right of every person to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
PRC actors are exporting the tools of the CCP’s techno-authoritarian model to countries around the world, enabling [[authoritarian]] states to exert control over their citizens and surveil opposition, training foreign partners in [[propaganda]].<ref>https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/U.S.-Strategic-Approach-to-The-Peoples-Republic-of-China-Report-5.20.20.pdf</ref>}}
PRC actors are exporting the tools of the CCP’s techno-authoritarian model to countries around the world, enabling [[authoritarian]] states to exert control over their citizens and surveil opposition, training foreign partners in [[propaganda]].<ref>https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/U.S.-Strategic-Approach-to-The-Peoples-Republic-of-China-Report-5.20.20.pdf</ref>}}
====Covid pandemic====
In January 2020, the [[Chinese Communist Party]] regime plainly demonstrated criminal intent by attempting to buy up the world's medical supplies and limiting all exports of their own, while refusing to communicate to the rest of the world the truth about the outbreak of the [[Covid virus]] in Wuhan. A DHS report relates, "We further assess the Chinese Government attempted to hide its actions by denying there were export restrictions and obfuscating and delaying provision of its trade data".<ref>https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/03/dhs-china-hiding-coronavirus-info-supplies-233185</ref> "In January, according to the report, China increased its imports of surgical facemasks by 278 percent, surgical gowns by 72 percent, and surgical gloves by 32 percent. Meanwhile, it slashed its global exports of a host of medical products: surgical gloves by 48 percent, surgical gowns by 71 percent, face masks by 48 percent, medical ventilators by 45 percent, intubator kits by 56 percent, thermometers by 53 percent, and cotton balls and swabs by 58 percent." China has long since thus squandered the right to be treated as a good-faith actor by openly warring in such a way with the free world.
"The argument about the culpability of China’s autocratic regime gained additional strength with the revelation that eight Chinese doctors who acted as whistleblowers about the virus were summarily discredited by the Chinese government as rumour-mongers. One of the eight doctors, [[Li Wenliang]], unfortunately succumbed to the disease soon after Beijing’s effort to discredit him and his colleagues. The sequence of events makes plain that the Chinese regime is primarily responsible for hiding the outbreak of the coronavirus in Wuhan and delaying publicising it and, consequently, for the great havoc it has caused in the world. No amount of [[whataboutism|whataboutery]] can hide this fact."<ref>https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/is-china-culpable-for-the-spread-of-coronavirus/</ref> China deliberately infected the world.
There is red-hot anger in the streets of China among the Chinese people and on Chinese social media about the criminal treatment of Dr. Li Wenliang by the Communist police: "The death of a Chinese doctor who tried to warn about the coronavirus outbreak has sparked widespread public anger and grief in China."<ref>https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51409801</ref> This anger can be tapped to spark a popular uprising against Communism. The Chinese Communist Party has been called "The-Soviet-Union-on-steroids" and has now given rise to an even more dangerous Chinese Cold War.
The [[coronavirus pandemic]] forced companies to re-evaluate whether China was actually a “cheap” supplier at all. To escape high labor costs, such as the [[Obamacare]] employer mandate, American companies were re-locating manufacturing jobs to China, where [[forced labor]] in [[gulag]]s run by the [[Chinese military]] are often employed.
President Trump has continued to be extremely tough in calling out China's malpractices. The President has warned Beijing there will be long term consequences and ramifications of its criminal behavior. Trump tweeted: "Some wacko in China just released a statement blaming everybody other than China for the Virus which has now killed hundreds of thousands of people. Please explain to this dope that it was the “incompetence of China”, and nothing else, that did this mass Worldwide killing"<ref>https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1263085979491016708</ref>
====Decoupling====
====Decoupling====
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.
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.
===Conclusion===
The world is moving toward a [[multipolar]] order. The actions of [[Russia]] and [[China]] are not an "arms race" but a [[sovereign]] right to develop defensive capabilities and ensure a crucial [[strategic]] balance, countering decades of [[unilateral]] aggression.
The [[US]] is racing just to stay in place against two peers whose combined [[strategic]] [[war]]heads could exceed 9,600.
==The neoconservative perspective==
==The neoconservative perspective==