We’re seeing increased pressure in the imperial core to reinvest in public funding for industry and social programs due to competition from a large socialist project.
This happened throughout the first cold war, so it’s telling to see the same patterns re-emerging.
Something I missed a couple months ago - The Senate Overwhelmingly Passed a Bill to Bolster Competitiveness With China
Passed back in June, the “Innovation and Competition Act” only really picked up support when it was renamed from the “Endless Frontier Act” and positioned as being an anti-China bill.
The more than 2,400-page bill greenlit almost $250 billion in funding for U.S. manufacturing and technology. It passed with a 68-32 vote in a Senate that has otherwise been mostly gridlocked by electoralist excuses (parliamentarian, manchin, fillibuster, etc).
Really telling quote from a Republican senator at the end of the linked article:
“Frankly, I think China has left us no option but to make these investments,”
Another quote with Schumer saying the quiet part out loud again:
“They [China] believe that squabbling democracies like ours can’t come together and invest in national priorities the way a top-down, centralized and authoritarian government can. They are rooting for us to fail so they can grab the mantle of global economic leadership and own the innovations.” - source.
A spokesperson from China’s foreign ministry said that bill was “full of cold war zero-sum thinking” that “distorts the facts [and] smears China’s development path and domestic and foreign policies". - Source
In a strange way, this could result in some benefits for those workers trapped in the Imperial Core as it could potentially lead to renewed spending on social programs, especially as China’s standard of living continues to improve.
I unfortunately don’t view that as a net positive since we’re already experiencing a spike in anti-Asian hate crimes, but it is interesting to see Capitalism’s ongoing response to its global power being challenged for the first time in decades.
What other examples of this have you noticed? Were benefits like the (still underwhelming) stimulus payments also caused by this pressure?
Theres actually a much larger legislative packet of anti china bills, this is just one of them. i did some research for DSA’s International Committee on this and we’re publishing a statement soon on it all and hoping to have a panel on it with Vijay Prashad too. Its basically using anti China sentiment to pour hundreds of billions into shit that’s entirely aimed at directly countering China including regional propaganda, loan restructures that bar countries from taking on future loans from china, military buildup in the indo pacific, increasing ties with Taiwan, etc. Lots of insidious shit thats just being thrown around to try and see what sticks to damage China economically. Also the fact that its being portrayed as “competition” is laughable seeing how its not providing like better bids for development projects in Africa than China, instead its funding telecommunication services to counter China and be able to more easily broadcast US friendly propaganda.
Good news out of DSA? I like it. A recent episode of the Antifada had someone from the international committee on and that they’re doing with with socialist groups outside the US, visiting Maduro, and dropped from the Socialist International had me rethinking about joining, when otherwise the PCUSA had been my choice. Do you like what you’re doing and recommend it?
ha fun fact Jamie is actually a DSA member and in Emerge which is the communist caucus of nyc dsa, i think she interviewed Marvin from the IC recently whos also in Emerge. I think we do good work, its a lot of building political cohesion and pushing back against other tendencies, ive been happy with how things have been moving over the past this past year. if ur in a random place in the country with no communist caucus it might be harder to figure out whats going on tbh at first but id recommend getting involved if youre interested in stuff like the international committee! a lot of problems w dsa is just capacity issues, its always helpful to have more ppl getting involved to help out both locally and in national stuff
heres some helpful resources, CPN is also mostly a commie caucus but not so explicitly, and there might be some other local left caucus you could look at. b&r and r&r are both trots and smc is all over the place i wouldnt recommend those last three at the bottom
This probably won’t have as much success in the regions that they’d like for it to have. Right now the United States is king of North America. These attempts will definitely have more of an effect here. Outside of North America is a mixed bag. There are plenty of countries in the other continents that will gladly follow along, but plenty that won’t.
It really just seems that they’ll be preaching to the choir for the most part.
The cold war has been going on for a while. Schumer is half right in that representative democracies can come together, at least when it comes to serving capital. This is probably a massive joke that gives away more to the private sector if the Covid and Infrastructure responses are anything to go by. Americans will continue to cut their legs off while angrily lashing out at China.
I am going to defect first chance I get.
it would honestly be pretty cool to be executed like the Rosenbergs for leaking America’s secret sauce ingredients to the Chinese.
Anyone reading this better be learning mandarin, otherwise you’re posers, /c/languagelearning
Anyone reading this better be learning mandarin
Honestly we joke about this here, to the point that some people seem to be taking it seriously and trying to learn Chinese, but it should be made aware to all that China has restrictive as fuck immigration policies. It’s not enough to learn Chinese and meet some cute Chinese girl, you like have to be a well respected electrical engineer to even have a shot at Chinese citizenship. You can work there, live there, build a fucking life there, but actual citizenship for expats is borderline impossible unless you in the exact right position.
Why would we move there when we can just help them take over and liberate America?
I’ll roll the dice. By 2050 with a decent level of hsk and some education there is a good chance they will take defectors. If not, I will still have a skill in the most connomly spoken language on earth used by the new global super power. So I’ll find some use for it.
Maybe if I get a tatto of mao they’ll know I am serious.
I wrote this while drinking after work, so it’s a little all over the place, but I think it’s interesting enough.
