On Tuesday, Antony Blinken, Joe Biden’s pick for secretary of state, called for the revitalization of US alliances to counter “threats” to the US from countries like China, North Korea, Iran, and Russia.
Blinken, a long-time aide to Biden, made the comments before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “Not one of the big challenges we face can be met by one country acting alone — even one as powerful as the US,” he said.
“We can revitalize our core alliances — force multipliers of our influence around the world. Together, we are far better positioned to counter threats posed by Russia, Iran, and North Korea and to stand up for democracy and human rights,” Blinken said.
He also said that the US could “out-compete China” with the help of its allies. The Trump administration has been working to shore up the support of US allies in the Pacific to counter Beijing, something the Biden administration is expected to continue.
With a reputation as a skilled diplomat, a State Department under Blinken will likely be more successful at strengthening military cooperation in Asia than Mike Pompeo’s State Department was.
Blinken also discussed President Trump’s hardline China policies on Tuesday. He said Trump “was right in taking a tougher approach to China,” although he did not totally agree with Trump’s tactics.
“The US could out-compete China” – from my experience that should be labeled as “Bar Talk” —-(ridiculous boasting with no chance of being true).
There seems to be a mis-perception that “competition” in trade and commerce is between countries and that there’s some kind of single long-term winner.
In a free exchange, all parties win, and seldom are the parties national regimes.
That’s one of the reasons why “trade deficits” are scary fairy tales rather than real problems.
Mr. Knapp;
When you live in a rust-belt place like West Virginia and the best job in town is flipping hamburgers at $9.50/hr. ; you are not “winning”. And, unfortunately, you if you remember when your Dad worked in a steel mill and your family used to get a new car every three years – you surely know that you are not “winning”. Why do you still believe in either Santa Claus or Ayn Rand?
According to Ayn Rand, the universe is benevolent. I can’t really speak to that. In my experience, it’s often a cold, hard place where people have to make hard choices. And it doesn’t owe any of us anything.
Are you better off flipping hamburgers at $9.50 an hour, or not doing so?
If you weren’t better off doing so, presumably you wouldn’t be doing so.
At one point in my life, I worked 80-90 hours a week — 40 on a construction crew, 20-30 flipping burgers and 20-30 doing odd light construction jobs on my own, all for less than $9.50 an hour. I didn’t care for it much. But if I hadn’t done it, I’d have been worse off than I was (as would have my daughter, a toddler at the time). That’s how it goes.
I am also familiar with Ayn Rand and her more salient philosophy involves how wonderful it is to take advantage of others’ problems, and squeeze every nickel one can from them.
I will agree that Black slaves back in the 1840s were better off working 12 hours a day for enough to eat rather than not having to work and starving to death 5,000 miles from home. But – is that the best, that mankind can do? I will also agree that back in 1880, ten year old children were better off working in dangerous woolen mills for pennies an hour rather than going to school if their fondness for education required their families to live in the street. But is that the best that mankind can do?
You say – “That’s how it goes” – And Yes – allowing greedy people to take advantage of others’ predicament or lack of knowledge can be just – “That’s how it goes” – until nearly all of us live in Hell while a privileged few live in Heaven. But is that the best that mankind can do?
In other words, you’re not familiar with Rand at all. No problem — I’m not a big fan of her myself — but it would probably be easier for you to actually become familiar with her work than try to fool someone who is.
The difference between black slaves in the 1840s and you flipping burgers in the 2020s is that you weren’t kidnapped, transported 5,000 miles away from home, and threatened with punishment or death if you refused to pick cotton or tried to escape. And that’s a big difference.
Mr Knapp;
How do you know what my landlord has threatened or what the guy who calls me on my phone five times a day has threatened me with – if I don’t pay the outrageous charges from a doctor who didn’t cure my problem?
The differences between what happened to a slave and what can happen to a wage serf are not enough different to justify a good nights sleep for a capitalist lackey.
You seem to be ignoring the differences in kind, preferring to focus on the differences in degree.
The first step to reaching the truth is to carefully look at things as they are instead of just pretending those things are whatever you want to believe them to be.