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China is the world’s second biggest producer of silver and seventh largest producer of nickel. Bonus is that the biggest producer of nickel is Indonesia, which has a free trade agreement with China and the third biggest producer is Russia (lol, lmao).

Also love the example of Sorghum because China is producer #8 in the world and 4 of the top producers are global south countries that absolutely would not cut off trade with China. Also, lmao at the thought of the CPC just collapsing because people can’t get one specific type of liquor. Imagine Russia trying to undermine America by targeting its strategic vodka supply.

All this tells me is that the West doesn’t produce anything that is irreplaceable to China and that the think tankers and journalists are too delusional to recognize this.

  • Tankiedesantski [he/him]@hexbear.netOP
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    1 year ago

    I just realized that solar panels and batteries are both key components to decarbonization, so these ghouls are proposing boiling the planet alive so that they can retain their hegemony in the smouldering ruins.

    • invalidusernamelol [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      China is very heavily invested in pumped hydro which is one of the only viable grid scale battery sources at the moment. Chemical batteries are only good for smaller towns where pumped hydro is prohibitively expensive and to smooth outputs on wind and solar

  • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    I keep telling people that China can survive without us, but we can’t survive without China. They make the stuff and if things got desperate they could re-configure their economy to make the stuff they need at home. The US doesn’t make the stuff and would be absolutely fucked without trade. It might get really, really messy but at the end of the day they’ve got real manufacturing capacity and we’ve got high finance autocannibalism.

    • Tankiedesantski [he/him]@hexbear.netOP
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      1 year ago

      China can keep their “electronic equipment”, their “machinery, including computers”, and their “vehicles”. Let’s see them survive without Marvel Movies and shitcoins!

    • DoubleShot [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      Mostly correct but I want to point that China does depend on the US for food. I mean I’m sure it’s something the CPC thinks about a lot and I assume they have a plan to reduce dependency but at the moment they import quite a bit of food from the US.

      • Tankiedesantski [he/him]@hexbear.netOP
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        1 year ago

        I have heard people assert (on what I think are fairly reasonable grounds) that China is mostly food secure for basic foods and relies on imports for luxury foods (tropical fruit, milk, etc) and soy and corn for use as animal feed.

        If this is true, then in a blockade or war situation there would be rationing of meat and luxury foods but basically enough vegetables and grains to avert famine.

        On a related note, China apparently has an 18 month stockpile of grain at current consumption, which Eldridge Colby (think tank ghoul) vagueposted about and got dunked on by Chen Weihua.

        • pick almost any vegetable and china grows near to or more than the next 9 nations combined.

          their agricultural system is far more diverse and resilient than the US. they had their own agricultural revolution during the so-called green revolution financed by Western capital, and while it doesn’t grow a mountain of soy/corn like the settler colonial states, it feeds healthy food to a lot of healthy people.

          • Tankiedesantski [he/him]@hexbear.netOP
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            1 year ago

            98% of pork in China is from foreign breeds of pig raised in China or from meat/adult pigs? If it’s the former then a blockade is not going to suddenly kill all the pigs inside China.

            And yes, it would be a massive drop in living standards food wise. However, widespread rationing of meat and fish is in the living memory of a big chunk of the Chinese population and if they didn’t overthrow the government then they’re probably not going to overthrow the government now that America is clearly the villain.

              • I have formal education in domestic animal genetics and broad experience in animal husbandry. that is not a real thing you are talking about. you absolutely need to bring a source to this discussion for that kind of assertion, because what you are talking about is biologically impossible.

                breeders close herds all the time and breeds are maintained by breeding organizations. the commercial F1 hybridization lines are controlled, but there is no “self terminate” gene.

    • PRNE@weatherishappening.network
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      1 year ago

      If the rest of the world proves too much to be shitass barbarians I fear they may return to their historical isolationism, which may be fine for them, and would be impossible to blame them, but will leave the rest of us a bit fucked

  • o_d [he/him]@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    […] the think tankers and journalists are too delusional to recognize this.

    Can we start calling think tank members “tankies”? I feel like the confusion would lead to some hilarious interactions.

    • rubpoll [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      […] the think tankers and journalists are too delusional to recognize this.

      Can we start calling think tank members “tankies”? I feel like the confusion would lead to some hilarious interactions.

      “What’s a tankie?”

      “A tankie is a member of a think tank, one of those ghouls who supports killing millions of people if it’ll make their stock prices go up.”

  • Dolores [love/loves]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    Chinese economic coercion

    give me one fucking example of a single time the Chinese have ‘coerced’ the US economically. what is the aggression the US has to ‘meet’?

  • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    ‘and allies’ doing some heavy lifting considering the thread doesn’t mention the US producing anything. According to this, 86% of China’s imports are from Canada, Australia, and the UK. Maybe the US does produce some, but doesn’t have significant contracts with China.

    Either way, it’ll be a challenge to convince CAUK to stop selling to China during their recessions because the US can’t do much with the raw materials and it’s traders aren’t going to be overly interested in buying up the nickel for a rainy day. US bonds might be a fix but who wants to sell valuable resources for tickets to a sinking ship? Maybe they won’t know the US can’t avoid the iceberg at this point?

    Regardless of any of this, Cha doesn’t seem to realise that China will likely be able to survive a lot better without nickel than the west can survive without… more or less everything. I don’t think these ‘intellectuals’ have fully come to terms with what neoliberalism means yet.

    The parts of the working class that gets or would get it’s hands dirty knows; they’ve seen their mining towns, ports, farms, and factories deteriorate or disappear. But the commentariat doesn’t seem to be aware that anything like a blitz spirit or post-war boom isn’t possible if you don’t have the industries to make anything or a political economy that could conceive of increasing domestic industrial capital.

    • Mokey [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      Im 1000% sure that the recent US strategy is to impoverish and make americans stupider as to do scarier jobs and go back to working in factories. They already know that the dependence on Chinese economy has to end

  • Stoatmilk [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    Hmm, looks like we could lower the standards of living for millions, escalate towards nuclear war, and make it harder to fight climate change. I say we do it.

    • AmarkuntheGatherer@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      Ol’ amerikkkan strategy of breaking bones to get a few punches in worked wonders against opponents the size of ants and beetles. I’m sure it’ll work against a rival of equal size. Definitely. It’s a proven concept.

    • zephyreks@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Food as an industry is going to see rapid transformation in the next decade or so. Emerging meat technologies are progressing incredibly quickly and will reduce inefficiencies in the current food production system.

  • Pure projection by the west that restrictions like this would have a long-term effect on China just because they would over here. China doesn’t operate like us, they aren’t going to shrug their shoulders and wait until the free market sorts itself out.

  • kristina [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    Man it’s fucked up to weaponize sorghum production, it’s the cheapest super food and it kinda tastes like ass so if they’re eating it it means they need it :/