GOOD MORNING FROM LONDON #246
In an article in today’s Guardian, Rafael Behr says that Biden’s G7 mission is to “recruit allies for the next cold war”. He is referring to China and the US hopes to create an anti-China alliance.
During the US/USSR Cold War, the Soviets maintained a challenge as a real military rival but failed as an economic competitor. In common parlance, the USSR could not deliver “Guns + Butter”.
As Behr says “No enterprise without markets; No markets without fair rules; No enforceable rules without democracy… China’s hybrid model of authoritarianism capitalism has disproved that theory”. Behr is wrong about the “capitalism” label + in assuming authoritarianism is undemocratic but that is for another day.
As China grows + grows, the focus today is on the new Cold War. Biden is nicer than Trump but identical to Trump re the US response to the rise of China. The EU is not in step with the US + neither is US Business. but Biden has no choice – the US cannot become #2. This is the overarching geopolitical issue in the world today. It is confrontation, not cooperation. China must be resisted. War beckons.
