In the meantime, shipments of rare earths have been halted at many ports, with customs officials blocking exports to any country, including to the U.S. as well as Japan and Germany, sources told the Times. China’s Ministry of Commerce issued export restrictions alongside the General Administration of Customs, prohibiting Chinese businesses from any engagement with U.S. firms, especially defense contractors.
They’re clearly calling Trump’s bluff, but why include Japan and Germany in this? Worrying. The article doesn’t explain.
BTW I don’t buy into the narrative that China is the better world dominator. Their human rights record is abhorrent, and they clearly aren’t a democracy. And I don’t see that changing anytinme soon.
Precisely this. You route a shipment to an un-tarriffed/un-embargoed country, usually to a shell company or something, and then ship it to wherever using THAT country as the country of origin. It’s a pretty common way of avoiding arms embargoes.
Because these are all loopholes used to bypass any serious moves. Like everyone is still buying Russian oil even in Europe. The blockade is an ineffective joke. This move is China saying fuck your instability and stupidity, we are serious and can back it up. There are no back doors and no way out of this insanely stupid mess.
It is not so much that China is the better world dominator, it is more that the US is already dominating more than any one nation should and it is a good thing if politicians keep dependencies on nations like that in their minds as a concern.
The US is a Republic, not just a democratic one. Republic means the power is in the hands of a few, which is exactly the case. It is not democratic at core, because votes mean shit.
An Oligarchic Republic, your wealth determines how many votes you get. In this system, the 99% of poor voters are shit.
We will need wealth floors and ceilings in a revised Constitution in order to get rid of this issue. Economics, politics, and violence, are just different faces of power. The great mistake of the Founding Fathers was failing to recognize that money needs checks and balances, else it runs out of control.
They’re clearly calling Trump’s bluff, but why include Japan and Germany in this? Worrying. The article doesn’t explain.
BTW I don’t buy into the narrative that China is the better world dominator. Their human rights record is abhorrent, and they clearly aren’t a democracy. And I don’t see that changing anytinme soon.
To stop US companies routing shipments through Germany and Japan.
Precisely this. You route a shipment to an un-tarriffed/un-embargoed country, usually to a shell company or something, and then ship it to wherever using THAT country as the country of origin. It’s a pretty common way of avoiding arms embargoes.
Because these are all loopholes used to bypass any serious moves. Like everyone is still buying Russian oil even in Europe. The blockade is an ineffective joke. This move is China saying fuck your instability and stupidity, we are serious and can back it up. There are no back doors and no way out of this insanely stupid mess.
It is not so much that China is the better world dominator, it is more that the US is already dominating more than any one nation should and it is a good thing if politicians keep dependencies on nations like that in their minds as a concern.
to be fair they havent been at war for decades.
the us has been at constant war for decades.
the choice here is easy.
the US is clearly not a republic
that change did happen recently
The US is a Republic, not just a democratic one. Republic means the power is in the hands of a few, which is exactly the case. It is not democratic at core, because votes mean shit.
An Oligarchic Republic, your wealth determines how many votes you get. In this system, the 99% of poor voters are shit.
We will need wealth floors and ceilings in a revised Constitution in order to get rid of this issue. Economics, politics, and violence, are just different faces of power. The great mistake of the Founding Fathers was failing to recognize that money needs checks and balances, else it runs out of control.