Geopolitical analyst and author Peter Zeihan has a different perspective on China and of the possibility of them militarily taking over Taiwan and having to deal with sanctions and boycotts from the West. He believes China has too many guns aimed at them agriculturally, financially, and politically to invade or take on the US.
Zeihan explains that China is looking at a potential manufacturing and food collapse. At the same time, they could have a political collapse. Their farming, which was never exceptional, is in worse shape now. Companies that have located to China are pulling out, having seen the writing on the wall with China having become a dictatorship.
The last one to start to leave is Apple. Now that China is banning the act of owning data by private corporations, Apple is starting to realize they can’t have 91% of their operation in China, Zeihan says.
The President of China, Xi Jinping, was thought to be a middle-of-the-road leader among the different factions in China, Zeihan states. Instead, he attacked his enemies, which was everyone, and basically took anyone in the country with independent thought and exiled them, imprisoned them, intimidated them into silence, or just shot them. There’s no one left to rule except him. Xi Jinping rules alone.
No one will bring Xi information because they could get shot for it. So we see increasingly stupid decisions. No one will challenge Xi. Across the government space, the Chinese are making very bad decisions, that includes decisions in agriculture, manufacturing, and finance.
According to Zeihan, when Xi talks about forcibly taking over Taiwan, he gets popular support. Whenever the Chinese aren’t One China, it’s been a problem for them. However, Russia’s example will discourage them. Sanctions would hurt them badly, and probably destroy them economically. If they thought it was going to be easy, Russia’s invasion proved otherwise.
What really terrifies the Chinese are boycotts. They would really hurt. The Chinese wouldn’t want to lose the technology they like to steal. They also don’t control the high seas and would lose all their manufacturing exports. Under these conditions, even if they took over Taiwan without firing a shot, they would be de-industrialized and would face famine. Even the winning scenarios are awful.
That doesn’t mean that Xi, as a one-man show, wouldn’t do it, but it would be a very stupid thing to do, in Zeihan’s opinion. He noted that the spy balloon was particularly stupid.
China also faces a population collapse. They have a .7 growth rate, and don’t have the youth to replace older workers.
China saw Western companies that invested $20 million into Russia just leave. They couldn’t afford that.
Zeihan makes a lot of sense. Col. MacGregor has also often said it’s ridiculous for people to think China wants to militarily take over the world. They are very content buying it up.
I have no idea if he’s right, but it’s a different take. While he’s right that China might not be ready now, they could be soon. Let it serve as a warning. Right now, young Chinese men are streaming in through our open borders. Who are they, and why are they here?
As for sanctions, they seem to hurt us much more than they hurt Russia. We have guns pointing at us too, such as BRICS, our economy, open borders, rapidly declining influence in the world, and the general incompetence of the hardcore leftists in the White House.
It is an interesting view. What if Hitler had been a wise leader and molded Germany into an economic giant instead of a military giant?
Anytime I read something from someone I never heard of the first thing I do is check everything about them.
Their many videos sound like propaganda from the mouths of Gen. Milley and Sec. Austin. It almost resembles Baghdad Bob.
It’s the same with China. I’m certainly not going to just believe what any one person says about the situation. My daughter lived there for over a decade and have listened to others who live there and in the region. It seems much of what we are told isn’t as clear cut as we are to believe. No doubt China is an economic adversary, but that shouldn’t be the premise to exaggerate and deceive everyone on other matters. As with everything, follow the money. Who gains by this. It’s clear the West salivates over taking control of the resources of other nations.
In the end, we must ask ourselves, is this all projection.