A couple days ago, the Treasury Department issued sanctions against China, Russia, and North Korea. Before now, we had bent over backwards to assure the Chinese government that sanctions were on individuals, but now the Treasury has specified that this is, in fact, a sanction on China itself. Two entities happen to be located on Peace Road (和平路), which is awesomely ironic, but other sanctions weren’t so funny.
When I was living in China, I could smell the shadiness of businesses. In architecture, the front of a building is often called a facade. That’s the doorway, maybe an archway, the name of the restaurant, maybe some fancy lights. In China, however, the word “facade” takes on a new meaning because, before you even walk in, you KNOW something’s not right.
In fact, I’ve learned that, in a restaurant, you often don’t want to be opening random doors thinking it might be the bathroom. I opened a door once and there was this guy counting such a huge wad of cash–all 100’s–that my next observation was that his hands were gigantic. He looked at me, didn’t say a word, as if he knew I was aware that I should probably just close the door and not tell anyone about it.
Well, that’s the last time I go to Little Russia in China.
Now, China has recently signed on to unanimous UN Security Council sanctions against North Korea and had previously issued its own independent import ban on North Korean for one year, moving 10,000 troops to their shared border to protect against an influx of North Korean refugees. They also previously vetoed UN Security Council sanctions and blocked action against North Korea numerous times. So it’s a mixed bag.
So what’s in these sanctions and what reason did the Trump Administration give for issuing them?
I don’t know what will Trump do. Simply because Trump is unpredictable and he is, somewhat, not really understanding the role of the U.S. in international stage
For a God sake reason: Trump has no clear understanding. Now after Irma and Harvey, he has seemed waking up, but again, his arrogance prevents him from doing at least a right thing
Kim Jong Un, Pakistan and China on the other side are trying to expand the fears and creating opportunities from the madness of Trump. I don’t know what is people thinking, either. But it is time we have to be serious.
Luckily, the Congress hasn’t lost their mind up and they might help us to drive policies.
I am no fan of Hillary Clinton. Obama, he has failed to deal what it should have to be. Bill… dunno. But I don’t think I want Bush Jr. to return, he is also a disaster. And Trump is just the last ending of an era of disastrous leaders since Bill Clinton’s era
The U.S. needs to balance their benefits to gain the goal to stop China’s domination. Russia is too weak to make something again, so China, with 5.000 years of trying to besert other interests, will be a threat for us
Reblogged this on The game changer.
Trump is like a 6 year old playing on a playground in grammar school, turning to name-calling because he knows nothing else.
He has no idea when to be forceful and when not; no idea how to use global-economic power, no idea how to professionally communicate with people, so he uses twitter to message his feelings of the day.
He threatens the use of military, mostly sounding like a fool in doing so, and even when he uses it, the moron calls and tells them “we’re going to attack your airport, you better get your planes out of harms way.” The, the idiot uses $18 million dollars worth of cruise missiles instead of a stealth bomber that could actually do something to the runway. He must be buddies with the CEO of Raytheon.
The clown has turned the U.S. into a pariah amongst all other nations, including our own allies.
Thank you for your comment, Bob. He certainly doesn’t know what he’s doing. I assume you’re referring to the strike on Syria. While I think something was necessary, that strike certainly lacked the surgical precision and informed capabilities of a modern military.
We’re not pariahs yet, and I have hope. We’re almost 25% through his first and hopefully only term, and our allies have acknowledged they stand with our people even when they don’t agree with our President.
I really like the way you write about politics. I found it both amusing and informative, and that’s the best kind of content. I also really like watching this power struggle, this dance, if you will, between the US and PRC play out. Sometimes I fantasize about how in a different world the US AND North Korea might find ways to really screw China over.
Thank you, Allison. I appreciate that. I want my blog to be engaging and easy to read. Why use dry language and big words when most people don’t talk that way?
That’s a really interesting premise. I’ve been studying China since 2006 and have paid much more attention to Pyongyang since 2013. Northeast Asia is probably the most dangerous and least considered hotspot. The Middle East is a problem, but Northeast Asia, where Russia, China, and North Korea all border each other like a tri-state mafia very serious, and I’m glad the world has finally noticed.
“Tri-state mafia.” I like that. If I ever write anything about those three and call it that, I’m definitely crediting you.
Thanks for following my blog, which is much appreciated.
Best wishes, Pete.
Thank you, Pete. I hope you enjoy my blog. If you have additional information about any of my posts, I’d be happy to hear from you.
You might prefer my other blog.
https://redflagflying.wordpress.com/
Regards, Pete.
Thank you. I checked it out. I really like it. I’d appreciate your comments on how Trump is changing our standing in the international community. As you say, Bangladesh is under water right now. The difference this time is they might be expecting Trump to do nothing about it even after we’re done recovering from Harvey, Irma, and Jose.
Trump is viewed as a rather buffoonish figure in Europe. They don’t take him at all seriously, which I think is a grave error. Some feel he won’t see out the term, but I have a feeling he could well be reelected.
When he won, I think most of us believed he would take an isolationist stance, and draw America back into a pre-1941 style of ‘Made In America’ politics. However, he went off on a tangent, and seems to want to fight everyone.
Some Americans have long believed in less government interference, less control, and people doing well by hard work. What’s mine is mine, etc. I think his current policies will appeal to them.
That said, I was no fan of Clinton either, and found it laughable that Sanders was considered to be a Socialist. Then again, some Americans thought Obama was a Communist…
Europe, as well as America is moving to the Right, on a tide of populist rhetoric and xenophobia. Trump is the best example of how this works, and perhaps why it should not.
Regards, Pete.
Thank you for your comment. Things are changing in the West. We’ve seen that globalization really turned into a one-way pipeline to China, which turned into major opportunities for them to control the world, and they’ve done a lot to further that goal.
I’ve been following this for more than a decade now, and I think we’re seeing some protectionism because we’re feeling a lot of uncertainty. If we can diversify or supply chain so we’re sourcing from multiple Asian countries, we’ll do well. Currently, with all our eggs in the same Chinese basket, we’re at their mercy, and for the past 2,000 years, that feeling of total control has been the goal of every Chinese leader.
You seem to know a lot about what’s going on. I look forward to reading more of your comments.
Reblogged this on The Militant Negro™.