Taking a bribe to let China reverse engineer our next generation fighter jet should be the kind of thing that has consequences. That’s going to cost a lot of lives down the road if things go sideways.
It echoes of China before their ~2011 anti-corruption campaign, they had a serious issue in previous decades where the CIA would basically pay-to-win, bribing officers to give promotions to their confederates. The point being, a corrupt system is easy to exploit, for any country that has some spare change to use.
It could also cost our lives as a US “ally”. Since they are the only fighter jet my country (Holland) is buying. Since China is a strong supporter of Russia it’s sure that they will get access to any countermeasures as well.
IMO we should sell those things and buy something else like the much cheaper alternatives from Europe.
But my country is also becoming pretty fascist and idealises America so they probably will just cave.
At least there’s still countries like Spain who have already cancelled their F-35 order 👏
China nowadays has the capacity to steamroll half of asia into compliance. Instead they build alliances/partnerships via trade, even with countries they ideologically disagree with. It’s less profitable in the short-term but leads to more predictable and stable development in the region, which benefits them massively in the long-term. Crazy what you can do if you think in centuries and not quarters.
¿Por qué no los dos? I mean, if you actually go to developing nations you will see that they are investing into real infrastructure that improves the standards of living dramatically. They also intend to turn some profit off of it. Most likely much of that profit will be in building long-term economic relations, rather than immediate rent-seeking, which can be viewed as “trapping nations in debt traps”, or as “investing into development”. They also invest with much fewer strings attached compared to IMF, which is a win comparatively speaking.
Taking a bribe to let China reverse engineer our next generation fighter jet should be the kind of thing that has consequences. That’s going to cost a lot of lives down the road if things go sideways.
It echoes of China before their ~2011 anti-corruption campaign, they had a serious issue in previous decades where the CIA would basically pay-to-win, bribing officers to give promotions to their confederates. The point being, a corrupt system is easy to exploit, for any country that has some spare change to use.
It could cost a lot of American lives. Could also save a bunch of Chinese ones.
It could also cost our lives as a US “ally”. Since they are the only fighter jet my country (Holland) is buying. Since China is a strong supporter of Russia it’s sure that they will get access to any countermeasures as well.
IMO we should sell those things and buy something else like the much cheaper alternatives from Europe.
But my country is also becoming pretty fascist and idealises America so they probably will just cave.
At least there’s still countries like Spain who have already cancelled their F-35 order 👏
If you look at the history of military operations performed by both countries, it’s pretty clear which one is the more likely option
Maybe because the other didn’t have the capacity.
China nowadays has the capacity to steamroll half of asia into compliance. Instead they build alliances/partnerships via trade, even with countries they ideologically disagree with. It’s less profitable in the short-term but leads to more predictable and stable development in the region, which benefits them massively in the long-term. Crazy what you can do if you think in centuries and not quarters.
China isn’t building trade alliances, they are trapping developing nations in debt traps
¿Por qué no los dos? I mean, if you actually go to developing nations you will see that they are investing into real infrastructure that improves the standards of living dramatically. They also intend to turn some profit off of it. Most likely much of that profit will be in building long-term economic relations, rather than immediate rent-seeking, which can be viewed as “trapping nations in debt traps”, or as “investing into development”. They also invest with much fewer strings attached compared to IMF, which is a win comparatively speaking.