China, Globalism & the Order of the World
Culture of Change - Episode 10 Show Notes
China! Chinese President Xi Jinping wants to play a bigger role in the world. Last week The Atlantic’s Michael Schuman published, “China Could Soon Be the Dominant Military Power in Asia,” which opens:
“Ever since the defeat of Japan in World War II nearly 80 years ago, the United States has been the preeminent military power in East Asia. Today China is on the verge of matching or even eclipsing the U.S. military’s presence in the region, having marshaled its newly acquired wealth and technological prowess to expand the scale and capabilities of its armed forces.
“The military balance between the U.S. and China in Asia is ‘very delicate and trending in an unfavorable direction in this decade for the U.S. and its allies,’ Elbridge Colby, a co-founder of the Marathon Initiative, a policy-research organization, and a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense, told me. “We should regard ourselves in a dead-heat race against an incredibly formidable competitor and take nothing for granted.’”
In related news, on Friday Reuters reported that Chinese troops are preparing to hold a “rare” joint military exercise in Laos later this week. According to the piece, the drill is an escalation from prior humanitarian exercises between the Chinese and Laotian militaries. China has also held military drills with Cambodia and Singapore this year, and “sent a working group to Laos, Vietnam and Brunei for talks on regional security issues, with a focus on ‘bilateral defence cooperation mechanisms.’”
The piece concludes with, “This exercise in Laos also comes as the United States increases military exercises in the region with annual war games in Indonesia and Thailand and the largest-ever annual drill last month with ally the Philippines involving more than 17,000 personnel.”
As China President Xi makes his moves, the globalists are signaling as well. According to the International Monetary Fund, Asia's economy is projected to make a strong recovery.
“China and India alone are expected to contribute more than half of global growth this year, with the rest of Asia contributing an additional quarter. Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam are all back to their robust pre-pandemic growth.”
This IMF piece was republished on the World Economic Forum site in February. Our favorite Professional Services firm is also betting on China. From McKinsey in January:
“Over the past 30 years, multinational companies (MNCs) have enjoyed an increasingly open world. Taking advantage of a unipolar globe with relatively free flows of capital, trade, and ideas, MNCs tapped capital from wherever they chose, built businesses optimized for global supply and global demand, and served increasingly globalized customers. That may no longer be possible. In a world reshaped by the coronavirus pandemic, rising geopolitical tensions, renewed inflationary pressures, and war, MNCs must reassess, reevaluate, and reconfigure their businesses for a new era. And China is where some of the most dramatic reconfiguration may take place.”
We’ll just put a pin in the fact that Paul Krugman’s “New Trade Theory and New Economic Geography” – for which he was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2008 – died in this McKinsey paper. Krugman’s theory is basically just globalism, and he was back last week pushing the Trillion Dollar Coin madness from the Obama Administration. I have a piece coming out in the Badlands substack this week about the Federal Reserve’s shitcoin, so be sure you’re subscribed over there so you don’t miss it.
Anyway, Krugman’s globalism died in this McKinsey piece, but globalism never dies, it just evolves, and its next iteration appears to be Chinese. When we are talking about McKinsey, we’re often talking about multinational corporations.
In related news out of NationalFile, Rupert Murdoch took out a $100M loan from the Chinese prior to Tucker’s ousting, and now Fox is reporting the Biden administration’s narrative that CCP is not contributing to the US fentanyl crisis.
Ryan Matta has done extensive reporting on the threat of China rising, the persecution of Miles Guo, and the shifting geopolitical landscape in the age of the illegitimate regime, and he joins me this week to discuss it all. And possibly some other stuff. This discussion could go anywhere.
ADDITIONAL SOURCES:
NPR: What China's growing role on the world stage means for the U.S.
Fox News: Chinese Communist Party not 'contributing' to US fentanyl crisis, Biden ambassador says
Watch Culture of Change on Badlands Media, Sundays at 6PM ET. All links and references are provided in the show notes on my substack following each show. Find all my work at linktr.ee/asheinamerica and follow me on all the socials @asheinamerica.
Great Pic of you and #1 Son. You and your MOM look like sisters :)
We need you. Don't stop. Please!!