People always talk about sanctions, but unless you're sanctioning Cuba or North Korea, sanctions can be as damaging to the countries doing the sanctioning. Fully sanctioning China would essentially mean cutting ourselves off from the world's top manufacturer, which would hurt the U.S. way more than China now that their domestic economy is in full swing.
Not to mention that most if not will American-based multinationals would never go along with it.
People always talk about sanctions, but unless you're sanctioning Cuba or North Korea, sanctions can be as damaging to the countries doing the sanctioning. Fully sanctioning China would essentially mean cutting ourselves off from the world's top manufacturer, which would hurt the U.S. way more than China now that their domestic economy is in full swing.
Not to mention that most if not will American-based multinationals would never go along with it.
I treat them as sports team insofar as I hope that the stadium catches on fire and collapses on both of them in the middle of the match.
What are your expectations here? Bombing Shanghai and toppling the world economy in retaliation for stealing unclassified emails?
I think you're right. And I think NATO wants Russia to completely commit to a war they can't win until the government collapses and/or rethinks its global strategy.
Zuck clearly put it there as a joke/Easter egg. I know it's weird, but dystopian multibillionnaires whose life's work undermines the very foundations of democracy around the world can have a (bad) sense of humor too.
I was in China last month where mask-wearing is frequent and not stigmatized. They had a surge of Covid cases, so I wore a mask on public transport. It's a total no-brainer there.
Back in Canada, I don't wear it as much because I'd be in much less trouble if I caught it here. Still wore one when visiting an aging relative in a medical facility.
I have to believe this is just posturing for the people at home on the part of Zelenskyy. He has to know immediate membership of Ukraine into NATO means direct war with Russia leading to nuclear escalation, as Ukraine would immediately invoke Article 5.
Just saying "Ukraine will be invited to NATO once the conflict is over" is enough; it means whatever territory Russia gets to keep over the course of this conflict is it, because then Ukraine becomes NATO territory. It forces Russia to try and win it all (which they can't) because there won't be another invasion of Ukraine.
Oh, I see! I misread the article. Good news!
It sounds like Erdogan is saying this is conditional on the EU reopening talks about Turkiye joining. Is that even happening?
The terrible message is precisely that NATO is only defensive in theory, but is willing to expand into the Pacific to defend a territory that is nowhere near its original purview.
The problem with the "purely defensive" argument is that historically, NATO Article 5 has been invoked to declare a war on a country that only indirectly threatened a NATO ally's regional stability. That's how NATO ended up bombing Serbia, which was doing despicable things to Albanians, but was not threatening NATO sovereignty to a degree that justifies Article 5.
Add these two together and China's opposition to a NATO presence in the Pacific makes a whole lot of sense.
A crypto company turns out to be shady? Who would have thought!