zaru27

To be fair, he's probably more fun at parties than the socially-challenged antifa squad downvoting me

Hong Kong is at the top - looks like that list will need to get updated soon.

To clarify, I'm not suggesting an outright ban - that would be a foreign policy gaffe of monumental proportions.

I also have no prejudice towards Chinese people, but I do feel that it is time for Americans to unite, realize that their is still hatred in the world (much of which is cultural), and toughen back up.

I definitely agree with what you're suggesting would be a great idea, but I'm not sure something like that could happen in the near future. I get the impression that the Democrats and their media have not entirely endorsed the trade war and anti-Sino policies as a means to point out Trump's incompetence and divisiveness, but that seems to be shifting. Washington probably doesn't want to escalate too much at any given time, as well, but meter it out slowly. I'm hoping that they do not buckle.

Last one regarding, for example, US developing a massive competitive advantage with the internet right after their housing market crash.

I won't debate any further because clearly I'm going to get downvoted for doing anything other than linking a business insider article on why chinese local debt is going to collapse tomorrow in the HN echo chamber. If you want to believe it's inevitable China is going to plateau in rapidly, by all means.

By the same token, there's no reason to think they'll fall anywhere near or under 5% in the near future. They have 1.5 billion people with a higher average IQ than the US with a strong educational culture, increasing economic opportunity with a lot of i's to dot in various industries, their per capita is still a fraction of that of a developed company, and there are another 1000 reasons to paint a fuller picture beyond my small sampling. In contrast, for example, Japan had less than half our population, didn't manage to steal all of our trade secrets, reached a high stage of development, and really didn't have anything revolutionary to offer.

I'm aware of what you're saying about the potential issues they're facing, but we really don't know how that will play out - it strikes me as western optimism.

That is true, but China is already setting the stage to assert itself as an imperial power.

I don't mean to come across as a sinophile - I don't want a hologram of Xi Jinping standing over me in 10 years, but, there is plenty of reason to worry and to not draw conclusions on whether or not they'll pull ahead or how quickly - that remains to be seen.

I don't think it's going far enough. There are several hundreds variables completely separating China and the USSR and Japan from a blanket comparison.

I would like to hope that they hit the breaks in the same way that Japan did, and there's certainly plenty of evidence that it's possible. However, if their model remains viable and they continue growing at the same rate, they'll certainly eclipse us in political and economic influence in 10-20 years at most - potentially technologically as well. I'm not sure that's even a disputable claim - it should be self evident. The question is if we'll suddenly outperform or if they'll hit a stumbling block, which remains to be seen.

I don't really see MAD as being a given, especially depending on if China or the US develops rapid technological advancements over the next few decades. I think it's a really unlikely idea to assume the nuke will be the great deterrent or equalizer for the rest of this century. China could easily conquer the planet if they pull sufficiently ahead in China, which is a fair possibility, looking at the current state of the US and Europe

It seems like he's come up with a very dubious dumbing down of why Germany went to war and appropriated it for his own reasons.

As an aside, it's interesting to watch how people on both sides of the aisle are jumping to find the rise of fascism in every nook and cranny of society. Sometimes, like here, it doesn't even seem to be an attempt at a political cudgel, which is the usual case. While I think most can agree FAANG is out of control, I'm not sure the fascism alarmism is a great approach.

That’s a very common term which he did not coin, so it’s ridiculous to ascribe that to him. Also- correct me if I’m wrong- when he uses it, it will be solely in regard to internet censorship & like activities, namely from Google/fb/Twitter, which has nothing to do with the wage discussion at hand.