Let me think.  Try to promote good ideals vs. spreading hate and beating the drums of war.  The ideals I was taught in America don't jive with American actions, historical or recent.

If you don't understand the power of corporate profits and wars, you should study what the US was up to in Central America between the wars.  If you don't understand the power of the US military manufacturers, you should look up Eisenhower's speech about the Military Industrial Complex and also check to see which corporations regularly make massive campaign donations to hawkish candidates.

Have you even been following weapons shipments to the Ukraine.  First the US got it's Eastern EU allies to send all their old Soviet gear.  Then they got their allies across Europe to send all other old gear.  How's NATO supposed to do whatever it is NATO does unless it replaces all that old gear.

Now they've worked their way up to newer items and are sending those just fast enough so that Russia can advance in some areas and be pushed back in others.  Both sides retain hope of victory, keep fighting, and keep expending ammo and weapons.

Kindly tell me why the mighty and powerful Oz USA and NATO would do it this way instead of sending stuff as fast as they can train the Ukrainians how to use it (and why not send LOTS more things they do not to use continuously)?  How does "Drain Russia as try as possible so that it can't possibly regain economic or military power any time soon AND drain NATO of as many items as possible so the US defense manufacturers will have a great time "helping" them restock over the next few years" strike you?  The US is ready to fight Russia with every drop of Ukranian blood and reap financial benefits (including sending natural gas to Europe at special extra high war rates) in the process.

But, the Ukraine might decide to offer the Donbas region up to save a lot of lives and the US would have a hard time preventing this, so it's time to provoke China and beat the drums of war in SE Asia.  "Hey Japan, Australia, and S. Korea!  See if you can also provoke China.  We've got your back, and we'll give you a few percent off on some overpriced weapons to show you how important you are.  Just ignore us trading more and more with China while we try to convince you that China will eat you unless you kneel before the US flag."


Before the "All things of China are evil" campaign was embraced, America was perfectly OK dealing with China despite various disagreements.  America still deals with China while trying to convince other countries not to (even selling coal to make up for China not buying Australian coal).

The optimal US play is to push one or more nearby countries into a "small" war with China, throw up a few sanctions, and sell a lot of weapons (but not so many to result in a quick resolution) while bragging about how helpful the US is being.

Unfortunately, the more likely scenario is the US getting drawn in and then what would have been a "good for TV ratings war" turns into a serious conflict massive casualties and a large chance of going nuclear.  Maybe you think that's fun, but non-psychopaths disapprove of blowing up cities.

The world would be safer if the US took a vacation from Asia.

YES 






It's BOTH 

You need to revisit China.  Yes, it has build some intersting weapons, but that's been the case of all countries with advance science.  You conveniently skip over the fact that China is putting larger efforts into not only civilian use technology, but also into basic research.  No one's going to weaponize the world's largest radio telescope any more than NASA's Hubble and Web Telescopes.  Your Darth Vader reference is amusing, but misguided.

Weapons didn't lift people out of poverty.  Improved agricultural techniques and improved economic opportunities for the impoverished did.

You really should do some research on more recent Chinese technological developments.  Check the US Patent Office to see how many patents Huawei and BOE got last year.  Check the amounts of scientific and medical data shared in major journals.  Then come back and try to pretend that paper was the last "worthy" item invented in China.


I'm a space fanatic.  I'll let you in on a little secret I figured out watching China's space program.  The time lags between the first few crewed launches drove me bonkers.  WHY WHY WHY wouldn't they launch faster?  Outside hate is strong too.  Every time China accomplishes something in space, it gets attacked as copied, will fall apart in 10 seconds, a piece of a Death Star (or a Force focusing weapon if you like), and allegedly proves that there's a brand new SPACE RACE.  Stop and think.  If it really was all copied, China could never pass the US, so the US already won the race before starting.  If it was all going to fall apart in 10 seconds, it could never win the race or make a useful weapon.  But the critical secret is . . .

China is NOT racing the US in space.  China's space plans are laid out long in advance and progress is at a stately pace to help avoid bad things like the Apollo 1 fire.

Similarly, China isn't trying to be economically bigger than the US.  China is growing its economy to help it's own people and helps other economies grow which provides more trade opportunities which helps its economy grow more.  If China's population was only 50 million, the same economic growth rates from impoverished towards prosperity would not have even ruffled the feathers of US hawks.  China will continue to try to grow in a fast, but stable fashion whether the US economy doubles tomorrow or falls into Great Depression II tomorrow.

China wants to progress.  If it can do this in beneficial cooperation with others, great.  If not, China will march on anyway.  Happily for China, the majority of nations (including the USA) seem more than willing to continue economic cooperation.

Sadly, at current rates, I think we're about 20 years from China and India having to provide massive foreign aid to keep Americans from starving.

To the extent that US practice impoverishes it's own people, it is in decline. The more wealth is concentrated, the more rigidly maintained those mechanisms for concentration, the less the nation as represented by it people can be great. That seems to be the way it works in America.

But if "the west" had its origin in the Ancient Greeks, stories of decline are nativist entertainment. Even talk of hegemons is misguided.



Science isn't uniquely western, but I do think the eastern approach is destructive of scientific knowledge. Which, by the way, means China IS Darth Vader. "Don’t be too proud of this technological terror you’ve constructed. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the [East]."

That technological terror, though, that's what enabled all those people in poverty in China to be "lifted" to less absolute a poverty. China did it. With the tools of global interconnectedness.

I don't think China can sustain as productive, and terrible, an empire as the US and the Europeans have done. For better or worse, we'll be poorer, and dumber, and saddled with duller entertainment, under the Chinese thumb. It'd actually be bizarre if somehow western crisis collectivism somehow didn't respond to being so bored.


That's probably one of the stronger reasons China keeps trying to separate western powers. Don't trust the US, don't be led by others, you're in decline, know your place. It's telling just how miserable the Chinese approach to other powers is.


The "decline" of the US is the "rise" of China inasmuch as the condition described by US "decline" is kind of an ideal world. That "rise" isn't a rise to prominence of glorious, what achievement? It's a settling at a lower level.


Papermaking, printing, gunpowder and the compass. Anything else over "5000" years? What were the social and cultural achievements? Pottery?

Seriously, why is it going to be a better world for most people?

I'll agree it's a new phase.  I'd say changing from coldwar dialogue would be a huge step in the right direction.

You might want to consider Chinese history.  Unlike the US and unlike the European empires in the Age of Exploration Colonization, China keeps any military disagreements close to home.  In the 1400's, China had the world's biggest fleet which included the world's biggest ships.  The "Treasure Fleet" got it's name for carrying treasure outward to establish trade.  They also had more than enough soldiers to protect the ships and deal with pirates.

The fleet went as far as Africa.  Countries weren't conquered and colonized.  They were recruited as trading partners.  Yes, it wasn't perfect.  Some interference in local affairs happened in some places.  At least one local king who ran piracy operations against his neighbors found out the hard way not to try piracy against a giant fleet, but overall it was minor compared to what was just beginning to get cranked up by the Europeans.

Sadly, the growth of richer and richer merchants threatened some of the political elite enough that the voyages were ended and the larger ships were destroyed.  Yes, you could try to stretch this to the present, but reigning in some giant corporations with fines and breaking up monopolies also happens in the USA+vassals camp too.  If the US doesn't decide to try a bit more reigning in, wait and see what happens when Amazon starts buying up defense contractors.

Compare that to what Europeans did to North America, South America, Africa, SE Asia, and that place inhabited by kangaroos, koala's, and some guy called Calach.

After the end of the Treasure Fleet, I suspect it would be very difficult to find any significant military activities involving China further away from the mainland than than the SCS.  This is unlike the US, which feels free to invade globally and, like a proper bully, tries to drag a few followers along to help (and help absorb some of the damage directed at the bully).

If the US would keep itself out of Asia, defense budgets, including China's, could be reduced.  The US itself would then be able to cut its own defense budget, if Congress (where the weapons industry is a huge supplier of campaign funds) were to agree.

In the meantime, China is busy slashing tariffs for goods from the 16 poorest countries in the world.  Your fear of China suddenly deciding conquer the world isn't stopping the improvements this will bring to the lives of those who live in such countries.

The world is at a cross roads.  The US can continue to push to remain a hegemon (which as worked out VERY badly for so many countries, even democratic ones), or the world moves towards being multipolar.

Will a multipolar world be perfect?  Probably not.  Will it be better than world run by a fading hegemon willing to literally anything to remain as #1 both militarily and economically?  Probably.  Aggressively pushing for a war that could spiral out of control just to slow a hegemon's inevitable decline seems rather unfair to the rest of the planet.