But Trump has shot himself in the foot on that

I'm sure W was aware what free trade with a third-world country of 1.6 billion people would do to us, but didn't care.

Maybe we should put an end to the free trade scam before it completely ruins us.

He's backed himself into a corner with NK and he outright rejected the TPP and so that just pushed nations into trading alliances led by China. At every turn, Trump just strengthens China's hand. The only saving grace we have is that China has overplayed their hand and other nations are starting to recognise them as the colonialists they've become.

The point is not to prevent China from trading at all, just to prevent China from trading with us on terms that screw us.

I don't disagree

I don't care if China trades with other countries on terms that we would refuse.

That's a rather short sighted view IMO

Short-sighted why, because it benefits us?

It doesn't benefit us. As China grows in power they can influence the world in ways we cannot counter. I kinda like a world with only one military superpower. It has a lot of benefits.

I am skeptical that China will ever rival the US in military power.

You all talk about us just bombing the hell out of people who support terror on our shores. Another superpower would make doing that difficult if not impossible. I actually remember the cold war.

It takes military power to maintain military supremacy. Trade policy doesn't decide that.

But an economically powerful China has the potential to be far more a threat that an economically weak Soviet Union ever was. Reagan ran the Soviets into the ground on economics. China won't go down that path.

China will have the resources to equal us whereas the Soviets bankrupted themselves trying

We could probably run China into the ground just by refusing to buy their cheap crap.

Also, China and Russia are natural enemies but we're driving them together in an alliance of convenience for the moment

I don't think China's culture and social control system will permit the kind of innovation necessary to maintain a military edge. They steal all their technology from the west and develop basically nothing of their own.

We should be aligning with Russia against China.

China has managed to get the the point where they have an indigenous market. They also are working to economically colonize a lot of the world.

Without the freedom to be different there are no inventors or entrepreneurs. Everyone is merely a pawn of an ossified state.

We'd already be in a shooting war with China if we actually held them accountable for all the espionage they've committed against us.

There are plenty of Chinese entrepreneurs

Such as?

That guy that copied Amazon?

The fact they can copy our most advanced stuff should give us pause

If you're counting Chinese entrepreneurs in the US you're missing Atkins's point.

The Soviets couldn't even copy what they stole

The Chinese can and do

The Soviets coped the Sidewinder missile I believe.

Even down to the labels.

The Soviets weren't dumb.

And the Chinese copy at the same level of fidelity as the Soviets. i.e., not very well.

China has gotten to a point where I think they can keep developing indigenously. They are competing with the French and Japanese for high speed trains. With the Germans on wind turbines. And no one can beat them now on solar.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/398973785426100234/513777091309862922/1506727323876.jpg

The Chinese lose dozens of fighters every year due to crashes. Their control surface software is crap.

Their engines rattle themselves to pieces because their metalurgy is shit.

But they have an economy that permits them to keep working at it

They might look the same on the surface but that's just to keep up appearances. Chinese military hardware is garbage.

Well, I'll let this go for now. I gotta move on to my "to do" list and I have to make an appearance at the hospital since I'm admin on call this weekend. I look forward to more discussion on the state of the world. 😃

This is really good. An hour long.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/p3rDfErT4l0/