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Comment by 0x1DEADCA0 | Hacker News Reader

This was considered a GOP talking point not 3 months ago

At no point was enhancing the US’ end-to-end ability to manufacture modern semiconductors at scale a Republican issue - the closest it got was “China is bad” and a few poorly placed sanctions. This action attacks the problem from opposite side.

Trump's unwillingness to roll over for the CCP might be the only thing about him that I supported, though even then he executed on it in about the most hamfisted ways possible. He just butted heads with Xi, and honestly, China has more raw economic momentum than we do, and I don't really think a sanctions-war is a winning strategy right now.

What Biden's doing is much smarter; he's patching up one of our biggest actual weaknesses which made the sanctions stalemate extra painful. It sounds like he's also prioritizing getting the rest of our allies in on it (instead of fracturing our ties with them), which is a great thing to be doing. In some ways I think Europe/Japan/Korea/Australia are going to decide which of us will be the next superpower. If we go all isolationist, and Europe gets cozy with China as a result, the contest is over.

Strategy and preparation are better than bluster and Twitter-insults.

I don't know if I'd call it an unwillingness to roll over, or simply political theatre. Here are some quotes from [0]

>“He then, stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming U.S. presidential election, alluding to China’s economic capability to affect the ongoing campaigns, pleading with Xi to ensure he’d win,”

>“Trump said that Xi should go ahead with building the camps, which Trump thought was exactly the right thing to do.”

>Bolton says he was so alarmed by Trump’s determination to do favors for autocrats such as Erdogan and Xi that he scheduled a meeting with Attorney General William P. Barr in 2019 to discuss the president’s behavior. Bolton writes that Barr agreed he also was worried about the appearances created by Trump’s behavior.

[0] https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-asked-chinas-x...

Maybe "unwillingness to roll over" was over-embellishing it a bit. He's a combative person who gets into conflict with others easily, and it just so happened that this time it was appropriate (while it lasted). I never meant to suggest he was doing it out of principle, though I can see how my phrasing might have come off that way.

> China has more raw economic momentum than we do

They also have a demographic problem: their boomers are retiring. Also they have crazy debt to gdp and they are 80% reliant on mideast oil. If iran goes to war with saudi arabia they are efffffed, even with belt and road, because that's three economic catastrophes converging.

Biden was VP for 8 years while China manipulated our markets. Created scam IPOs. Engaged in state funded corporate espionage. Manipulated currency. Stole IP.

So give me a break with Biden is "much smarter'. It would take a fool to not do what they did. But the problem is much broader then just tech. The government cares about tech because this directly relates to defense.

The Trump strategy was basically to try to cut as much foreign investment into China and stop investment from coming out of China. It wasn't necessarily stupid.

The Biden strategy is essentially an arms race Cold War 2.0 and its not a bad idea but to say it "much smarter" demonstrates a bias which show you are not thinking of the double edged sword and implication of the Biden strategy.

I remember the campaign ads suggesting Biden would sell us out to China (or something), but I don't remember any factual basis for pushing that narrative.

Where were you for the four years of "trade war" and Pompeo calling out China about Xinjiang?

Well, go ahead, don't be vague, don't leave us hanging.

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