Shining city on a hill. Anyway, yes, competition _could_ be good, but only if your fundamentals are sound and you are strong enough. Competition of the Dutch with the British ultimately ended in the demise of the golden age of the Netherlands by the fourth Anglo-Dutxh war. The Brits and Germans also competed with each other and that led to the destruction of Germany and the Brits being overshadowed by the Americans. Honestly, the best case scenario for the US is following the path of the UK and slowly fade away (maybe with outsized cultural influence, as the Brits had for many decades long after they were the leading power in the world). Worst case is acting irrationally and ending up like Germany during and between WWI and WWII (or heck, like Argentina since it's glory days around 1900). The 21st century will be contested between China and India.
Regarding your last sentence, did you miss the part about China's demographic collapse?
Many people have been predicting the decline of America and it has never come true. The US has tons of advantages if the government would get out of the way.
The most important reason for China's support of Russia is that China sees itself as next on the list for America's regime change. So in preserving Russia, it preserves itself.
CHINA ANNEXED TIBET 75 YEARS AGO
As per your own Wikipedia reference, Tibet has been part of China since 1720 (Qing Dynasty). Although gaining a high degree of autonomy ("de facto independence") after the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, Tibet's independence was never recognized by either the RoC/Taiwan or the PRC. An independent Tibet has also never been given diplomatic recognition by any country.
CHINA'S PROBLEM WITH CAPITAL ALLOCATION
1. Perhaps not efficient, but definitely EFFECTIVE. Since being hit with tariffs and economic sanctions during Trump's first Presidency China has succeeded in almost entirely removing itself from Western supply chains--even to the point of banning Nvidia GPUs. Not only is China a manufacturing powerhouse, the 2025 Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) Critical Technology Tracker reported that China leads in 66 of 74 critical technologies.
2. America's and the EU's seizure of sovereign Russian assets--illegal under international law--is all we need to know about Western property rights. The message is clear: Unless you are an American ally, your economic assets are NOT SECURE.
And when has annexation been wrong and resisted???
East Jerusalem-annexed by Israel 1980
West Bank-annexed by Israel 1967
Gazza Strip-annexed by Israel 1967
Shebaa Farms-annexed by Israel 1967
Guam-annexed by USA 1898
Puerto Rico-annexed by USA 1898
Philippines-annexed by USA 1898; independence 1946
Hawaii-annexed by USA 1898
Interestingly, in April 2022 Russia offered to return the Donbass and Luhansk to Ukraine in exchange for Ukraine's permanent neutrality, reduction of Ukraine's armed forces to 50,000, and recognition of the de facto annexation of Crimea to Russia. Ukraine was convinced not to accept the offer and continue fighting.
Needless to say, that offer is no longer on the table. And the agreement with Russia is only getting worse by the day.
I am not defending the 19th century annexations that the US did, that was wrong. I will note that the US has offered independence to Puerto Rico, and they have turned it down. Not a lot of "invaders" do that. (Aside: did we also do that with Guam?)
You are leaving out a ton of backstory in the Israel history. Maybe if other countries had not repeatedly started wars of aggression Israel would not have responded the way they did.
Regarding your bit on Ukraine, you are saying they should have accepted being a vassal state to end the war (and giving up Crimea, which Russia signed in writing that they did not own at the end of the Cold War) ?
I just wanted to remind you to apply the same standard to EVERYONE...
Geopolitics is a very cruel game (Kishore Mahbubani, former Singaporean Ambassador to the UN and former President of the UN Security Council). Small countries like Canada, Ukraine, Singapore, Palestine, etc. have to be smart when dealing with major powers.
As a Canadian, I am under no illusions that Canada could ever align itself economically or otherwise with China and against the US--the repercussions would be severe even including American invasion. Or perhaps you missed Trump's 2025 National Security Strategy in which he claims domination over the entire Western hemisphere, including all its natural resources. And this follows threats to annex Canada, Greenland, the Panama Canal, and most recently military threats against Venezuela, including committing actual war crimes. Of course, this is simply an extension of the well-known Monroe Doctrine...
"NOT ONE INCH EASTWARD..." (U.S. Secretary of State James Baker to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Feb 1990)
It's worth remembering that this is the same Putin that used to declare Russia a European country, asked for Russia to join both NATO and the EU, and offered America its unconditional support following the terrorist attacks of 9-11, including use of Russian military bases in the Caucasuses and access to the Northern Alliance rebels in Afghanistan. We must look ourselves in the mirror and ask ourselves how we lost Russia and pushed them toward China--their historical adversaries.
For Ukraine, the choice in April 2022 was between a bad deal then and a terrible deal in the future. Today their choice is between a terrible deal (ceding Donbass and Luhansk) and a horrible deal (also the loss of Odessa and the entire Black Sea coast). The reality is that there is NOTHING that the West can do to prevent Ukraine's defeat. It is shocking the poor old Russia is outproducing the combined efforts of the USA, Europe, Japan, and South Korea in shells, missiles, air defense, and military drones--which tells us all we need to know about real GDP!!!
There is a reason that Putin has specifically labelled this a Special Military Operation--Russia is being extremely restrained. If Russia truly switches to a war footing, it will a orders of magnitude more ugly.
Meanwhile, Europe is being deinstrialized as a result of the war in Ukraine as it has sanctioned itself from cheap Russian energy. And that cheap energy is unlikely to return as Russia is building pipelines to permanently divert that energy to China.
Finally, I would say that the same assessment applies to Palestine. In 2000, Palestine was offered a very bad deal by Israeli President Ehud Barak--a rump state with discontinuous regions and subservience to Israel. But it was still better than any deal they will ever get in the future.
Small countries (like Canada, Ukraine, and Palestine) must live in the world as it actually is; not how we would like it to be--another quote from Kishore Mahbubani.
If you tell the average Chinese that Africans want to immigrate to the US and Europe I'm pretty sure the response will be "Thank God, we sure as hell don't want them here." The reactions on Chinese social media to the new K visa were very MAGA-(MCGA?) like.
If Americans and Europeans don't want Africans to immigrate to their countries, then they should pray that China's Belt and Road initiative succeeds in bringing prosperity to Africa.
Shining city on a hill. Anyway, yes, competition _could_ be good, but only if your fundamentals are sound and you are strong enough. Competition of the Dutch with the British ultimately ended in the demise of the golden age of the Netherlands by the fourth Anglo-Dutxh war. The Brits and Germans also competed with each other and that led to the destruction of Germany and the Brits being overshadowed by the Americans. Honestly, the best case scenario for the US is following the path of the UK and slowly fade away (maybe with outsized cultural influence, as the Brits had for many decades long after they were the leading power in the world). Worst case is acting irrationally and ending up like Germany during and between WWI and WWII (or heck, like Argentina since it's glory days around 1900). The 21st century will be contested between China and India.
Competition is good, direct war is not.
The Cold War didn't have mutual destruction!
Regarding your last sentence, did you miss the part about China's demographic collapse?
Many people have been predicting the decline of America and it has never come true. The US has tons of advantages if the government would get out of the way.
CHINA WILL SUPPORT RUSSIA'S WAR
The most important reason for China's support of Russia is that China sees itself as next on the list for America's regime change. So in preserving Russia, it preserves itself.
CHINA ANNEXED TIBET 75 YEARS AGO
As per your own Wikipedia reference, Tibet has been part of China since 1720 (Qing Dynasty). Although gaining a high degree of autonomy ("de facto independence") after the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, Tibet's independence was never recognized by either the RoC/Taiwan or the PRC. An independent Tibet has also never been given diplomatic recognition by any country.
CHINA'S PROBLEM WITH CAPITAL ALLOCATION
1. Perhaps not efficient, but definitely EFFECTIVE. Since being hit with tariffs and economic sanctions during Trump's first Presidency China has succeeded in almost entirely removing itself from Western supply chains--even to the point of banning Nvidia GPUs. Not only is China a manufacturing powerhouse, the 2025 Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) Critical Technology Tracker reported that China leads in 66 of 74 critical technologies.
2. America's and the EU's seizure of sovereign Russian assets--illegal under international law--is all we need to know about Western property rights. The message is clear: Unless you are an American ally, your economic assets are NOT SECURE.
I thought the message was: invading other countries for the purpose of annexation is wrong and will be resisted.
And when has annexation been wrong and resisted???
East Jerusalem-annexed by Israel 1980
West Bank-annexed by Israel 1967
Gazza Strip-annexed by Israel 1967
Shebaa Farms-annexed by Israel 1967
Guam-annexed by USA 1898
Puerto Rico-annexed by USA 1898
Philippines-annexed by USA 1898; independence 1946
Hawaii-annexed by USA 1898
Interestingly, in April 2022 Russia offered to return the Donbass and Luhansk to Ukraine in exchange for Ukraine's permanent neutrality, reduction of Ukraine's armed forces to 50,000, and recognition of the de facto annexation of Crimea to Russia. Ukraine was convinced not to accept the offer and continue fighting.
Needless to say, that offer is no longer on the table. And the agreement with Russia is only getting worse by the day.
I am not defending the 19th century annexations that the US did, that was wrong. I will note that the US has offered independence to Puerto Rico, and they have turned it down. Not a lot of "invaders" do that. (Aside: did we also do that with Guam?)
You are leaving out a ton of backstory in the Israel history. Maybe if other countries had not repeatedly started wars of aggression Israel would not have responded the way they did.
Regarding your bit on Ukraine, you are saying they should have accepted being a vassal state to end the war (and giving up Crimea, which Russia signed in writing that they did not own at the end of the Cold War) ?
I just wanted to remind you to apply the same standard to EVERYONE...
Geopolitics is a very cruel game (Kishore Mahbubani, former Singaporean Ambassador to the UN and former President of the UN Security Council). Small countries like Canada, Ukraine, Singapore, Palestine, etc. have to be smart when dealing with major powers.
As a Canadian, I am under no illusions that Canada could ever align itself economically or otherwise with China and against the US--the repercussions would be severe even including American invasion. Or perhaps you missed Trump's 2025 National Security Strategy in which he claims domination over the entire Western hemisphere, including all its natural resources. And this follows threats to annex Canada, Greenland, the Panama Canal, and most recently military threats against Venezuela, including committing actual war crimes. Of course, this is simply an extension of the well-known Monroe Doctrine...
"NOT ONE INCH EASTWARD..." (U.S. Secretary of State James Baker to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Feb 1990)
It's worth remembering that this is the same Putin that used to declare Russia a European country, asked for Russia to join both NATO and the EU, and offered America its unconditional support following the terrorist attacks of 9-11, including use of Russian military bases in the Caucasuses and access to the Northern Alliance rebels in Afghanistan. We must look ourselves in the mirror and ask ourselves how we lost Russia and pushed them toward China--their historical adversaries.
For Ukraine, the choice in April 2022 was between a bad deal then and a terrible deal in the future. Today their choice is between a terrible deal (ceding Donbass and Luhansk) and a horrible deal (also the loss of Odessa and the entire Black Sea coast). The reality is that there is NOTHING that the West can do to prevent Ukraine's defeat. It is shocking the poor old Russia is outproducing the combined efforts of the USA, Europe, Japan, and South Korea in shells, missiles, air defense, and military drones--which tells us all we need to know about real GDP!!!
There is a reason that Putin has specifically labelled this a Special Military Operation--Russia is being extremely restrained. If Russia truly switches to a war footing, it will a orders of magnitude more ugly.
Meanwhile, Europe is being deinstrialized as a result of the war in Ukraine as it has sanctioned itself from cheap Russian energy. And that cheap energy is unlikely to return as Russia is building pipelines to permanently divert that energy to China.
Finally, I would say that the same assessment applies to Palestine. In 2000, Palestine was offered a very bad deal by Israeli President Ehud Barak--a rump state with discontinuous regions and subservience to Israel. But it was still better than any deal they will ever get in the future.
Small countries (like Canada, Ukraine, and Palestine) must live in the world as it actually is; not how we would like it to be--another quote from Kishore Mahbubani.
If you tell the average Chinese that Africans want to immigrate to the US and Europe I'm pretty sure the response will be "Thank God, we sure as hell don't want them here." The reactions on Chinese social media to the new K visa were very MAGA-(MCGA?) like.
If Americans and Europeans don't want Africans to immigrate to their countries, then they should pray that China's Belt and Road initiative succeeds in bringing prosperity to Africa.