Gasp... agreeing with Obama on International Trade...!?!

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

(OTOH, I have no problem mirroring another country's protectionist laws.  Perhaps I am mistaken, but it doesn't seem like a wonderful idea to open your markets to a country that is intentionally closed to your own.  So, use Prisoner's Dilemma game theory on the situation.  But retaliation only.)

Eh.  It's beneficial to us to be able to buy from them when it suits us.  This is true whether they'll let us sell to them or not.  As mak points out, it's beneficial to us to be able to buy cheap tires from them.  We shouldn't give up this boon just because we can't sell tires back to them.

Or, to put it another way, just because they're going to shoot themselves in the foot with trade protections doesn't mean we should try to get even with 'em by shooting ourselves in the foot.

[longeyes]

You'd be right if consumerism fueled by promiscuous debt were not a form of addiction.  That you can buy "drugs" cheap and end up an impotent nation is not to your economic advantage, ever.  We have bartered away our future getting high on stuff neither we nor our descendants can pay for except with our precious freedom.

I think the Chinese are getting even for the Opium Wars--in their own way.  Yes, the same war that started the great fortunes in America that launched the New York bankers.

[drewtam]

I think the Chinese are getting even for the Opium Wars--in their own way.  Yes, the same war that started the great fortunes in America that launched the New York bankers.

I typically disagree with everything you say. But this small part is something I do agree with. The Chinese I know, those that identify themselves culturally or legally with China, have such an interesting case of social superiority complex. My experience is that they really do believe themselves to be culturally superior. So things like the opium wars and the boxer rebellion and other wars that have thoroughly humiliated China in the modern era really seem to irritate and make them deeply angry.

[longeyes]

We're not going to have a trade war with China, not if Obama remains in power.  We're going to become China.  Obama loves Mao the way he loves his own Kenyan daddy.

[drewtam]

Don't look now but China has completely given up on socialism. Now they are just a fascist, dictatorial, Machiavellian government that allows a mixed economy and some local elections (which may or may not be a sham).

[longeyes]

Who said they were socialist?  Fascist is the word I'd choose, and we're going the same way.

[drewtam]

You did.

We're going to become China.  Obama loves Mao the way he loves his own Kenyan daddy.

When Mao Zedong was in power, the government upheld the few promises of socialism. Now days, that ideology has been stripped away and all thats left is the power and corruption. As the ideology continues to decay among the population, I think they are growing to resent the core of what is left.

I am watching for a freedom movement in China that can promise two things that the people will believe:
1. Continued unification
2. Continued improvement of face in the world's eyes

I think if a movement can convince people of these two things, it will gain traction/power among the population. Of course, these are two things the CCP has done well, which why I think it has held on to power. But because of the corruption and fascism, the people are ready for a freer alternative that can provide the same.

[longeyes]

All well and good, and one can be hopeful.  But right now China is still, in essence, a fascist state.

It's also a potentially unstable one because of its demographics.  Shortage of females, for one thing, and aging population. 

By the way, drewtam, I said Obama loves Mao (and by implication Marx).  I said nothing about socialism.  Socialism is too benign a word to use for nations that engaged in mass slaughter for the sake of "humanity."