Tuesday, 02 January 2024 12:17 GMT

Skull Chart Math Behind Trump's Climbdown On All Things China


(MENAFN- Asia Times) The newest National Defense Strategy just delivered to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth calls for refocusing the Department of War on domestic and regional missions instead of global adversaries like China and Russia. The document – supposedly the work of Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby – overturns decades of received interventionist wisdom.

This may surprise many given our boy Colby had been a principal advocate for a robust and muscular“Strategy of Denial” to counter China. But perhaps our Under Secretary of War for Policy actually is a realist and not, against all prior evidence, a low-watt Washington nepo baby (see here ).

In his confirmation hearings, young Colby did display surprising flashes of realism declaring,“Taiwan is very important to the United States, but... it's not an existential interest.”

Should we be surprised at all? Han Feizi is not (see here , here , here and here ). C'mon folks, what is this“Department of War” nonsense if not a desperate attempt to puff out one's chest after realizing the deficiencies of the US military?

Did the Under Secretary get a look at proper intelligence and data once ensconced at the Pentagon? Or was the conclusion predetermined by the whims of a mercurial president? Does it matter?

China just put on a bravura military parade, showcasing whizzbang weapons systems which military nerds will spend countless hours analyzing and dissecting on social media.

China appears to have replicated the speed of its EV industry (see here ) in its weapons programs, launching new military hardware across a range of applications – missiles, drones, fighter planes, helicopters, submarines, warships etc. – at an unfathomable pace (see here ).

Of course, it is not unfathomable at all. Like China's auto industry swamping the world with new models, the country's defense industry is able to develop weapons at a blistering pace because China's universities pump out 6.7 times the number of engineers as US universities every year.



A defense climb-down is not the only one in the offing. The Trump administration recently extended tariff negotiations with China by another 90 days (which, given the appellate court ruling against the president's use of the“emergency” clause, may prove moot).

This comes on the heels of announced trade deals with Vietnam, Japan, the EU and Indonesia among others, as well as punitive actions against India, Switzerland and Brazil – for whatever reasons.

We will not expend too many brain cells trying to divine a method to Trump's madness. What is fairly obvious is that Trump only clubs baby seals. And China is not a baby seal.

The 90-day extension is the third time Trump folded in negotiations with China. The first time was 90 days prior in Geneva, after multiple rounds of escalating tariffs threatened to empty US store shelves and freeze US industries for lack of intermediary industrial inputs.

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