Geographic proximity makes it next to impossible for China to displace the US in Mexico/Canadian trade, and if the Panama canal were weaponized you'd see Panama given a dose of freedom. The US won't overtake China in South American trade simply because China needs the resources and the US doesn't. As for Chinese warships in Brazil, I think it's farfetched. By that point the US has collapsed or were in WW3.
Where the US is most at risk is in Asia/Oceania. The ability to exert power is inverse to the geographic distance. It's far easier for China to seize Taiwan, threaten Australia, and close American shipping than it is for the US to stop it. By default the US needs to possess an overwhelming material and technological advantage. It's why the US cannot allow Greenland to fall into Chinese hands, why US-Canadian integration must go forward, and why Japan is a country worth going to war for and Ukraine is not.
Economic leverage leads to other type of leverage, geopolitical and potentially even military. China needs a lot of commodities (food, feedstock, grain, meat, metals) etc. that they can import from SA, while simultaneously exporting cheap electronics, EV's, solar panels, and everything in between to SA. The military port was just an example, the real threat would be if all of this trade was going to be settled in Yuan rather than dollar. If that happens, that would be a gargantuan blow to the dollar, i don't think people understand that. It would also mean that those countries will start to 'listen' to those that have this leverage, possibly at detriment of our national interests. The point with China, is they can push us out because countries like Brasil find they are a better economic partner vs the US, god forbid same happens with Mexico. They don't even need to pick up arms or start wars, they can just offer better trade deals than we can, that's why i don't even know how we counter that.
But reality is, eastern Europe is not of critical importance to us. It was 50 years ago when the big bad beast was the USSR, not today. Pumping the Philippines or some other SE/East ally with defenses is way more critical than eastern Europe, like it's not even in the same ball park close. Yet here we are today the MSM screeching that we can't 'appease' dictators and we absolutely have to keep fighting in Ukraine. The longer this goes on the better for China, because it redirects valuable limited resources from where they need to go to basically waste, as if Russia is more than a regional power at this point in history.
tldr.
Literally nothing you posted here is of value or worth responding to. Like literally if i turn on CNN they will tell me the same how all of this is bad because we need to appease our allies. Don't upset the status quo, don't cut spending, don't stop the war in Ukraine, basically don't do anything that would change the unsustainable path the US is on.
I'm curious to hear original thoughts from you, how do we counter China? How do we reduce our deficit? Tell me what you think not what the TV has taught you to think.
This post was edited by ofthevoid on Feb 25 2025 01:27pm