@dangillmor Tariffs are *not* inherently evil. Imagine if high, and ever rising, tariffs were slapped on the #PRC #china after the 1989 #Tiananmen massacre — and until they rethink their military occupation of Tibet?

Tariffs against any and all dictatorships and and all the positive effects of trade and exchanges targeted solely towards friendly and peaceful countries? Maybe that would have really ended the Cold War and brought about the "end of history"...

We can only imagine of course, because instead it only took couple of months after that massacre for the USA and other major democracies to be queueing up outside #CCP's headquarters to talk business. #MFN and expedited #WTO memberships followed, with zero consequences for the wholesale breaching of the treaty's letter and spirit. 🤷🏻‍♂️

That the #trump|tards are planning to use #tariffs as a weapon against friendly liberal democracies is not the fault of the tool.

PS. Isn't #WSJ part of the Rupert #Murdoch influencing empire...? 👀

“For peace in our time, a Chinese dictatorship empowered with growing economy is in everybody's best interests...“

Paraphrasing US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo at #jinping's court. 🤷🏻‍♂️

ref: https://nitter.net/SariArhoHavren/status/1696379391666794957

#CCP #china #dictatorship #genocide #militaryexpansionism #GinaRaimondo #UnitedStates #NatSec #MFN #MostFavoredNation #coupling #entanglement #humanrights

Imagine if the actual nazis were still genociding the native peoples and cultures in occupied lebensraum *for 70 fucking years and counting*...

Imagine the 'third reich' — completely unrepentent and still military-expansionist — was not only admitted to the United Nations but given a top seat with veto powers...

Just so that the industrialists and bankers of the democratic world could do unhindered business there, with cheap labour (the reeducation camps naturally fully utilized!) and not a labour law or civil libetry in sight!

Imagination isn't needed.

The CCP chinazis, who even adopted "legalism" from nazi #Germany to justify any and all acts of despotism under "rule-by-law", their dictatorship switched from nominal "communism" to #NationalSocialism (orig. nazional sozialismus i.e. nazism) and did all that. While killing more people than #stalin and #hitler *combined*. After WWII, 'the end of all wars'...

And *still* people of the embattled democracies are buying all they can from that regime, empowering it and paying its bills as is builds it concentration camps and its military power and its internal control machinery... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Ukrainians are now having to fight to stop #russian genocidal invasion exactly because the likes of #putin and #xijinping saw there were no *consequences* if you genocide #Tibetans or #Uighurs or even deprive #Hongkongers of their civil rights in that #BankingColony of the #CCP ...

Well, all that #indifference that has caused so much suffering to those neighbours of despotic imperialists will inevitably hit home at those indifferent democracies that chose to look away.

And it always was a choice.

#china #chinazi #WTO #MFN #Ukraine #democracy #humanrights
@BubblegumYeti

✨ Panic Accent ✨ #vtuber #twitchclips #MFN

Lemme in! #twitchclips #vtuber #MFN

🇨🇳☭💥🇺🇸 Hearing of The Select Committee on the CCP: Risky Business: Growing Peril for American Companies in China
07/13/2023
https://selectcommitteeontheccp.house.gov/committee-activity/hearings/hearing-notice-risky-business-growing-peril-american-companies-china

Desmond Shum:「A thought when sitting in the hearing. I think the committee should leave the last battle behind and prepare for the next battle in this continuing competition. The prize of the competition is the construct of world order. Over the past three decades, China has, from a rising economic power, become the second largest economy that exerts strong global influence. China has gained the strength to change the world order. Xi has stressed repeatedly that he is ready to do that, “a change the world hasn’t seen in a hundred year 百年未有之大变局”. CCP won the last phase by a stealth attack that US didn’t see and didn’t believe was coming. But, we are entering a new phase. I believe China economy has peaked and is on the way down. Of course, given the size of its economy today, there will be pockets that continue to grow. But, it doesn’t change the fact that Chinese economy overall has peaked and will start to go south. I think the next battle is about dealing w a different China: the world’s second largest economy w low/no growth, or god forbid to some😱 that it actually starts to decline; more authoritarian and dystopian internally; aggressive and menacing externally, but sometimes messages unexpectedly friendliness (that’s managing outside pressure not change of heart). China/Taiwan issue will be a growing thorn for the world, as an invasion would wreck the global economy. With an economically weakened China, does that make Xi more or less likely to start a war? How does the democratic world, lead by US, deal w that “new” China? That’s the next phase of this global competition」

https://nitter.net/DesmondShum/status/1679799201104900097

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyYytwv8hNY

#CCP #PRC #china #IPtheft #chinabusiness101 #MFN #WTO #geopolitics #NatSec #tradepolicy #TrumanDoctrine #globalism #authoritarianism

☝️ Question to the #EUCommission: If the values enshrined in #UnitedNations (#humanrights) declarations are considered truly important, why are all the democracies financing, industrializing and otherwise empowering hostile #authoritarian regimes?

There are basically zero incentives for governments and elites of developing countries to choose #democracy over #authoritarianism... 👀

💥 Why not establish a global trading system where authoritarians and despots face serious tariffs and embargoes, and military-expansionist or even genocidal regimes actually face at least *some* real world consequences over their crimes? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Meanwhile trade and financial, industrial and technological assistance should be reserved for countries with at least *minimal* adherence to the most basic #UN ideals.

Why is this simple concept so difficult? Reward good, not evil.

Is it really hard to fathom *why* the post-1989 world rewarded greed over democratic values? In 1989, only months after the #TianAnMen massacre, trade delegations were queueing up to kowtow the #CCP #dictatorship... They got the message, as did #putler a decade later.

#WTO #MFN #MostFavoredNation #china #russia #AxisOfDespots #brics #SCO #EuropeanUnion #HandelOhneWandel
@EU_Commission

Yet the "non-market tools" of CCP's #nationalsocialist command economy weren't its most powerful weapon against free market democracies.

#CCP's most powerful tool was, and still remains, the *market fools*.

Business with hostile, genocidal dictatorships may be profitable to those in that business, but the cost to this most benevolent of human experiments — democracy — is unthinkable.

What is #democracy without #ethics? Seriously?

And the worry is "punitive actions that have been taken against U.S. firms in recent months”? 👀

#PRC #china #WTO #MFN #genocide #dictatorship #militaryexpansionism #Tibet #EastTurkistan #Hongkong #Mongolia #southchinasea #ninedashline @w7voa

Good research by #MERICS on CCP's use of sanctions against its #democratic enemies.

The real fun bit comes at the very end: "Unofficial measures".

What this means of course is that because the CCP is a *#dictatorship*, they can really do whatever they want!

CCP's "law" is just a #legalistic facade, just like it was in #Nazi #ThirdReich where the Chinese "communists" in fact copied #legalism from. 🤔

"How China imposes sanctions — A guide to the evolution of Beijing’s new policy tool"
https://merics.org/en/report/how-china-imposes-sanctions

「China has to date adopted unilateral sanctions that:

☭ came in response to perceived violations of its red lines and national interests,
☭ did not show any signs of any signs of adopting secondary sanctions,
☭ often came as a mix of official and unofficial measures (i.e., measures that are not officially announced and/or adopted by the central government).

The last point makes China’s sanctions policy challenging to respond to. Not only is litigation complicated when non-official measures are adopted, they can also bolster official sanctions, while remaining plausibly deniable. China wants to create the perception that its punitive measures are difficult to predict, in order to discourage other countries’ from sanctioning.」

Unavoidably the paper uses the usual euphemisms wrt. the #neverelected CCP dictatorship. For instance "national interests" of the CCP regime are often diametrically opposed to the interests of its silenced and manipulated subjects, a.k.a "the people". CCP ≠ China

"...and you may ask yourself: 'How did we get here!?' "

#PRC #CCP #beijing #china #unitedfront #AxisOfDespots #appeasement #nixon #kissinger #MFN #WTO

Fun one for the policy wonks:

TL:DW? Once the session begins the key points are made in the witnesses' initial statements.

#EuropeanUnion and #democratic allies should be aware that this is (finally) happening. #Decoupling is no longer a question of *if*, but *how*.

HEARING - Leveling the Playing Field: How to Counter the CCP's Economic Aggression

The Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party [held] a hearing on Wednesday, May 17, 2023...

Amb. Robert Lighthizer | United States Trade Representative (2017-2021)
Mr. Roger Robinson | Chairman, U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (2001-2006)
Mr. Eric Schmidt | Executive Chairman, Alphabet (2015-2017)

https://selectcommitteeontheccp.house.gov/

#derisking #zeitenwende #foreignpolicy #natsec #WTO #MFN #globalism #ccp #china #authoritarianism #mercantilism #fentanyl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI8ArYsA3Vs

Five #petals, 28 mm in size.

Trapped in #ambar for 33 to 38 million years.

Discovered by #EvaMariaSadowski in 1872.

Now studied to reveal to this present that it was immortalized as it was spreading its #pollen.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2354599-largest-flower-found-in-amber-was-frozen-in-time-millions-of-years-ago/

📷 Carola Radke, #MfN

#flowers #science #botanical #eocene #nature #natural #naturalscience

中總榮譽會長 #黃宜弘 病逝。#六四 後他曾拉大隊港商見 #李鵬、#楊尚昆，又訪美見兩黨眾議員，遊說放寬中國 #MFN，救中共於水火。 bit.ly/2HwnJ7C
#中美關係 #港美關係 #最惠國待遇 #NancyPelosi #JohnMcCain #鄭明訓 #經濟制裁 #香港歷史 #香港前途考古 #HongKong

#文章推介 #中美逆轉 #港人共業 #美港condom史
美國Johns Hopkins大學社會學系主任 #孔誥烽 教授在左翼陣地Marxist Sociology Blog撰文簡介其新近學術成果，從 #克林頓 政府對中政策轉向開始，追蹤美中兩國在全球商貿合作上化友為敵歷程，包括美港携手推動中國國企上市，美國企業如何誤信中共承諾為其做說客，終被用完即棄，值得參考。

全文： bit.ly/3f6PbYx

延伸閱讀：中美關係與香港前途
medium.com/recall-hk/e-133288d26ff0

#改革開放 #MFN #WTO #RobertRubin #WinstonLord #中美貿易戰 #新冷戰 #列寧 #帝國主義 #資本主義 #香港歷史 #香港前途考古 #hongkong

#焦土回望 #白手套輓歌
北京硬推國安法，美國正式確認香港丟失自治與 #獨立關稅區待遇，回顧美方如何一直在香港前途扮演「低調」要角。 http://bit.ly/339feYz
#和平統一 #一國兩制 #GATT #改革開放 #六四屠殺 #經濟制裁 #香港政策法 #MFN #WTO #PNTR #李柱銘 #香港歷史 #香港前途考古 #hongkong

被譽為 #民主之父 #最後騎士 的政壇元老 #李柱銘，早前因預約被捕再受關注，其公職生涯見證中英談判至主權移交，對 #香港前途 影響深遠。這裡盤點過往貼文簡單回顧。 bit.ly/35F7RdX

#民主黨 #港同盟 #支聯會 #基本法草委 #香港政策法 #MFN #中國入世 #城邦騎士 #香港歷史 #香港前途考古 #HongKong

#中美關係 與 #香港前途
一般理解，香港今日地位是中英談判結果，然而美國影響其實舉足輕重。當年美國搶先表態贊成中共50年不變承諾，又支持中國入世，與香港專才協助國企改革全球融資，促成黨國崛起，是今日困局背景。 bit.ly/339feYz

#一國兩制 #GATT #戴卓爾夫人 #六四屠殺 #布殊 #李鵬 #江澤民 #克林頓 #改革開放 #經濟制裁 #香港政策法 #李柱銘 #NancyPelosi #MitchMcConnell #JohPorter #MFN #香港中華總商會 #港美關係 #WTO #PNTR #香港歷史 #香港前途考古 #hongkong

#昔日商界議員遊說團 #中美關係與香港前途
六四後美國嚴審中國 #最惠國待遇(#MFN)，港商組團赴美遊說阻止；民主派 #李柱銘 則認為遊說MFN要投其所好與人權一併爭取。隨著中共滲透華府，#克林頓 總統放水宣佈中國人權與MFN脫鈎，美商自此大條道理入華，成就 #世界工廠 崛起。 bit.ly/2HwnJ7C

#八九民運 #六四 #六四屠殺 #中美關係 #港美關係 #李柱銘 #最惠國待遇 #香港中華總商會 #黃宜弘 #鄭明訓 #NancyPelosi #JohnMcCain #江澤民 #經濟制裁 #香港歷史 #香港前途考古 #HongKong