A Facebook friend asked: Does either candidate (Trump or Hillary) have the right approach towards Russia/China? Can you tell?
Strategic considerations regarding Russia and China
Posted by John Reed on
John T. Reed That’s a big part of my Unelected President book.
Both those governments fear their own citizens most. They both use America as a bogeyman to fight against to distract their populace from their economy. Unfortunately, part of that is to push us with territorial grabs. We learned not to allow them at Munich in 1938. But that needs to be joint with the countries in the region. If they won’t stand up to Russia or China, let them kiss Russia’s and China’s asses.
Trump right on NATO
I agree with Trump on NATO not paying the 2% of GDP for defense that they promised, and that NATO no longer needs us to protect them from Russia. Otherwise, we just need to stand up to the expansions, more than we did in Crimea and Ukraine and more than we have thus far in the South China Sea. I do not know Hillary’s policy on either. She’s a wet noodle foreign policy wise. Trump is going to raise tariffs on China. That is economically insane and reveals appalling ignorance of economics.
Russia is just nukes, oil, and gas
Russia has no strategic importance other than their nukes and some oil and gas. Think about it. What could Russia do that would adversely affect us or even the eastern hemisphere? Next to nothing. Compare to Egypt, who could close the Suez Canal.
China is dependent on trade
What could China do? China has no strategic significance short of acts of war against neighbors. They are important in trade, but that’s a two-way street. If they withhold trade, the populace of China may revolt, which nullifies trade as a strategic fact. The only time we should impose tariffs or bans on Chinese goods would be if the alternative were war, which also ends trade. If we banned Chinese goods in the US, it would hurt us severely but it would hurt them worse because their economy, like those of Europe and Japan, are more reliant on exports than we are.
Big but weak
China wants more respect because of its population; Russia because of its geographical area. The latter is nuts. Dirt and ice are not strategic. China’s people are only valuable as producers of trade goods. If non-China responds to China’s bullying with trade embargoes, China is screwed. What’re they gonna do, nuke us into trading with them?
Cheap is good. Why do you need me to tell you that?
We need to stand up to Russia and China military expansionism, but otherwise, stuff like China manipulating its currency is nothing but a good deal for us. We get to buy their stuff cheap. Some would-be American exporters need to adjust but America is not a country of the exporters, by the exporters or for the exporters. Other than those issues, Russia and China are far away, relatively poor nations who are less important to us than they or alarmists would have us believe.
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