I think it would be a mistake to view China as isolated in this.
In -ALL- of this? No. In this specific situation where everyone else has already slipped the tariffs? Yes. Absolutely they’re standing on their own basically in the immediate moment.
As to US soft power I think Trump was already the sign that they’ve given up on that. If they hadn’t they wouldn’t be gutting all the soft power operations with DOGE and doing so much damage to image with threats to annex Greenland and Canada. I think the die has been cast there that hard imperialism is the way forward, cold war 1.0 playbook basically. I think Ukraine was a wake-up call because US propaganda didn’t pull in the global south, it just plain failed outside of Europe and US vassals in Asia. What soft power they retain will be aimed at “traditional values” crowd as in the cold war, running up red-scare stuff about Chinese commies gay marrying you against your will and things like that.
America is very much in a do or die situation and we know it, they know it, China knows it. They’re trying to undergo a transformation which will either succeed in prolonging their grip on power or hastening their demise, the way to delay and hedge against either was to continue the old path but that led to certain doom while this they feel gives them a chance.
No. In this specific situation where everyone else has already slipped the tariffs?
China is the biggest target, it hasn’t been isolated from the world economy or the free trade system. America is making an attempt to isolate china but how many countries will play along?
What soft power they retain will be aimed at “traditional values” crowd
Fair enough. But there is more to soft power than just cultural factors. The reliability of the American market itself is in question, and this is not a good thing. America going with fascist aesthetics is nowhere near as America trying to interfere with the global gravy train.
It is impossible to convince the Europeans to side with the global south out of the goodness of their hearts (which they don’t have). However, fucking with their wallets will cause everyone except the most ardent European hitlerites to rethink their relationship with America.
In -ALL- of this? No. In this specific situation where everyone else has already slipped the tariffs? Yes. Absolutely they’re standing on their own basically in the immediate moment.
As to US soft power I think Trump was already the sign that they’ve given up on that. If they hadn’t they wouldn’t be gutting all the soft power operations with DOGE and doing so much damage to image with threats to annex Greenland and Canada. I think the die has been cast there that hard imperialism is the way forward, cold war 1.0 playbook basically. I think Ukraine was a wake-up call because US propaganda didn’t pull in the global south, it just plain failed outside of Europe and US vassals in Asia. What soft power they retain will be aimed at “traditional values” crowd as in the cold war, running up red-scare stuff about Chinese commies gay marrying you against your will and things like that.
America is very much in a do or die situation and we know it, they know it, China knows it. They’re trying to undergo a transformation which will either succeed in prolonging their grip on power or hastening their demise, the way to delay and hedge against either was to continue the old path but that led to certain doom while this they feel gives them a chance.
China is the biggest target, it hasn’t been isolated from the world economy or the free trade system. America is making an attempt to isolate china but how many countries will play along?
Fair enough. But there is more to soft power than just cultural factors. The reliability of the American market itself is in question, and this is not a good thing. America going with fascist aesthetics is nowhere near as America trying to interfere with the global gravy train.
It is impossible to convince the Europeans to side with the global south out of the goodness of their hearts (which they don’t have). However, fucking with their wallets will cause everyone except the most ardent European hitlerites to rethink their relationship with America.