eric olthwaite wrote:I get that China's behaviour in HK and against the Uighurs has been despicable and action is necessary, but fuck me, pissing them off on top of Brexit and Covid is going to make for a super fun 2021 economically, innit?
Quite right Eric. China has cynically upped the ante on so many fronts mid Covid: Let’s also include South China Sea territory gambits, India & Arctic border agitations and especially Belt & Road initiative widening (which helped coerce 53 nations into supporting those HK crackdowns at the HRC - oh and don’t forget StanChart & HSBC pinning their colours up).
Unless somehow the US, EU, AsiaPac et al find a way to cooperate, adopt a unified set of financial, trade and other penalties that bite sufficiently hard for Xi to rethink, or ideally lose sufficient face to be quietly ousted by his Party - then life in the near future could well take an ominous turn - Most Ballers grew up at the back end of the Cold War and recall enough to dread the though of similar recurring for our children.
i’m not hopeful. There’s cronyism and self interest muddying the processes of International Agencies, Political parties, multinationals and banks. But at least the UK is doing the right thing here, even though it’ll hurt.