Even during this Pandemic, tensions are rising between the US relationship with China and Russia. Honestly, there is no point in challenging these powerful authoritarian Communist regimes and making them hostile when we are going through a pandemic that is killing around 14,000 people every day around the world. In the US alone, more than 3000 people are dying daily due to Covid. This is the time all countries must be united to fight the pandemic. Without these countries’ help, it will be impossible to vaccinate and protect the whole world. China has been and still is the Manufacturing powerhouse in making masks and PPE kits and distributing them around the world to fight Covid. Their vaccines Sinovac and Sinopharm have been administered 4.5 billion doses which is half the total number of doses of vaccines given around the world. Their relatively cheap vaccines along with the Asterzenaca’s Vaccine are distributed to the poor parts of the world which cannot afford our expensive American vaccines. Please see the Nature article below which shows the percentage of doses administered for each approved Vaccine.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03686-x
When it comes to Democracy in these countries, But Both Russia and China sailed away from that principle long ago and started worshiping Dictators because communism cannot coexist with today’s capitalism without strong authoritarian governance. Putin is in power for 2 decades now and Xi Jinping completed almost a decade now as China’s President. Once these leaders are gone, it’s going to create a leadership vacuum and most probably both these countries will have a hard time surviving that. So there may be no point in worrying too much about them. Why worry when in Defense spending, the United states outspend the other 5 top spending countries combined. Please check the Statista Graph in the link below showing top military spenders. So We have enough weapons to defend ourselves.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/262742/countries-with-the-highest-military-spending/
Statista Graph showing highest military spending countries with US at the Top
Also, future wars will be more phycological warfare rather than using weapons. Why Countries will spend millions on weapons if they can ruin other countries by inciting divisions within their people using platforms like the internet and populist leaders who are willing to go to any extend for their political gains. Weapons are not in shortage either in the countries which don’t have any gun control.
Instead of keep blaming China for its lack of democracy, authoritarianism, human rights violations, we should look at how they became a superpower and what they did correct to become one. When I was growing up back in the 70s, we learned that China is a country where people lived modestly, everyone ride a bicycle to work, etc. But in the last 50 years, all that Changed Rapidly. Its united states and Capitalism made china succeed and become the powerhouse they are now. US corporations made huge investments in China mostly to offshore our manufacturing jobs for cheap labor.
As we all know in China, people cannot question the Government or there is any freedom of speech when it comes to government. In return, the government can provide their population safety, opportunities, fast transportation across the country, and good quality of life. If Chinese citizens cannot speak against their Government, It’s their problem, not ours. Maybe they like it that way. According to a Harvard study, 95% of the Chinese citizens are happy with their government whereas in the US only 38% of the American citizens are happy with our government. This is before the Pandemic. After the Pandemic, the Approval rating for the US government within our citizens is in its 20s now. Harvard study and link below.
During the covid Pandemic, Like most Americans, I relied on Chinese-made Masks and other PPE to survive. Most of the items I buy from Walmart and Samclub including Fish are all coming from China. We rely on China for everything and our corporations like Walmart and Amazon made huge profits and are trillion-dollar companies now. If you want to bring manufacturing back to the US, or politicians should cut ties with the Lobbying firms who are the enablers for these trillion-dollar companies. This way United states can re-shore those manufacturing jobs with the help of automation and compete with the cheap labor which other countries offer.
There are a lot of things China is doing correctly which we should learn from them.
In China, education is very affordable including higher education. In their Top level universities like Tsinghua University and Peking University, admissions are all merit-based and very affordable. There are no backdoor admissions and acceptance is all based on a national-level exam.
China has now the largest high-speed rail system in the world connecting all its provinces and cities. This makes their people travel affordable and fast around the country. This way all people can chase their dreams without getting marginalized and stuck in certain pockets of the country.
China fought the Pandemic United. That’s why there are only 5000 of its people died from their 1.4 Billion population when we have more than 900,000 of our people died in a population of 325 Million. They only had one wave when the pandemic started and we are going through wave after wave with around 2000 people dying every day.
China was able to Control covid effectively because when it comes to public health measures they made sure that someone’s personal freedom was not a death sentence to another. It does not matter whether it’s a mask or vaccine mandate, people have to just follow the government policies for the common good. They were able to do all this without running their economy.
China has tight control over its Internet and other Social media platforms. They are not letting the Social Media companies to make a profit by spreading hate running the social structure or killing the progressive government policies within their country.
They vaccinated 83% of their 1.4 billion people and we vaccinated 62% of our 325 million people.
China provides safety for its citizens. The Crime rate in the United States is many times as that of China when I did a comparison on Nationmaster.com. Please see the Nationmaster comparison below
https://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/compare/China/United-States/Crime
So instead of criticizing these China, we should treat them as a competitor and work with them in addressing the Challenges around the world. We have a lot of our own issues we need to deal with.
Afghanistan exit will be considered as one of the Epic failures of the Biden administration. Who can forget the pictures of those people clinging for their dear life of an Aircraft wheel trying to escape the Taliban and then falling into the ground and dying? Who can forget those US service members killed who were trying to do a latch ditch effort to evacuate some people from there? I felt like there was no humanity left in this world anymore watching all that. By the way, Why did the US do Nation-building there for more than 10 years giving those people especially the young women hope that their lives could be better growing up and they can become something in life. We put dreams in their mind that they will have a better future ahead of them. How Many US lives and how much taxpayer dollars were spent all these years in Afghanistan for a tragic Outcome like this? We took Afghan people to the mountaintop to show the promise land and then pushed them off the cliff onto the Taliban’s hands again. The way we left that country was disgraceful too. As most of us know, all that chaos happened because our administration abandoned the most secure Bagram Airfield and picked the crowded unsecure Kabul Airport for Final Evacuation and advertised the whole world on evacuation day in advance. If the administration has done such a grave strategic blunder, In retaliation, Why would you blow up an Afghan family with 7 children with information which is not credible, especially when you have no ground presence to confirm it?. It’s 100% the administration’s fault to pick unsecure Kabul Airport for an evacuation that caused the deaths of US service members and innocent civilians trying to escape. Evacuation should have been done secretly, orderly, and gracefully before even announcing the troop withdrawal from Bagram Airfield.
Why would the US leave so much sophisticated and Dangerous military equipment back there which will destabilize the entire region the including the neighboring countries? Like I said earlier, Afghanistan people should have no Hope because the Taliban will use this American equipment to oppress people there for the next 50 years. Everyone knows that the Taliban was founded, funded, and maintained by Pakistan. These are the people who spread terrorism not only in the region but across the entire world including America. A good portion of terrorist attacks in the US always had some Pakistan ties. So Please stop arming Pakistan Military with the Latest American-made Fighter jets. Missiles, tanks, and WMDs. if an extreme group or military gains control of the unstable Pakistan government (has happened before), Then it will cause the deaths of millions of people in that region and around the world. It will be a threat to the US as well. Why don’t we learn from the mistakes done in the past?. I don’t want my TAX payer money spent on shipping Military equipment to Pakistan so that they can go and bomb India where my mother and sister still live. US won’t do anything that would cause a threat to Israel correct? India is a country like Israel but 150 times more Populus than Israel.
At the same time, the US always demonized Countries like Iran and Cuba. Both countries were once ruled by Dictators who oppressed and abused their people. Cuba had Fulgencio Batista and Iran had Shah of Iran. Obviously, the aftermath will be a revolution in the name of Democracy. It’s also common the people who take power after a revolution are most of the time hardliners. That’s what happened in both Iran and Cuba.
Iran used to be a most welcoming country for all the foreigners 50 years back and the people there are highlight educated. When the Sha was dethroned and the revolutionary government took over, the Western countries allegedly tried to Destabilize the incumbent government, and this made them more and more Radical and Anti-American. There are even unconfirmed reports that the western countries even encouraged Iraq to go against Iran. After that, what happened was the longest and brutal War where western countries competed to provide Arms and Ammunitions including Chemical Weapons to Iraq which killed Millions of Civilians and Soldiers in Iran. The NPR Article I am including says US administration even helped Saddam to Gas the people of Iran. On June 9, 1992, Ted Koppel reported on ABC's Nightline that the "US administration permitted—and frequently encouraged—the flow of money, agricultural credits, dual-use technology, chemicals, and weapons to Iraq."
On top of all this, the US shot down one of Iran’s passenger Airlines which killed around 300 of their People. If that happens do you think any country would love the people who did that to them? It’s quite natural and they turned more and more against the US and the US continued Sanctioning them in the hope that People there will starve and revolt against their leadership. First of all, it does not work and it’s cruel to make the poor people in those countries suffer, instead of their leadership which is Anti-American. Sanctions made Iranian people more Anti American and that only helped that regime. Obama Understood this and tried to fix the relationship with both Iran and Cuba and trump reversed all that. It’s not Iran that is the Biggest Threat to the Middle East. Their government may be bad, but Iranians are educated people who could be brought back to the world stage like what they used to be 50 years back. It’s Saudi Arabia and Pakistan we have to worry about. We all know that even 911 was orchestrated by the people from these two countries. US government sells Fights jets, missiles, and all kinds of Military Power to Saudi Arabia so that they can Oppress their people and the neighboring countries like Yemen. Saudi Arabia is the most ideologically extreme country in the world where the current ruling regime oppresses their people, especially Women and minorities. Women cannot show their faces and have to wear Burka everywhere. The Shaik’s who rule that country marry 8-9 times even underaged kids. The public Executions, beheadings and beatings in Saudi are all over the Internet. They are terrorizing their people and killing thousands of people in Yemen, and the US treats this Saudi regime as if they are the biggest ally! The US considers Iran as the No 1 enemy where women are even allowed to participate in government, walk freely showing their face with much fewer restrictions, and are highly educated as well. I would not say Iran is the best country in the middle east when it comes to human rights but much better when compared to Saudi. Do you think Saudi is going to survive once Electric Vehicles become the New Norm? When they run out of their oil money, they will collapse like any other authoritarian government which oppresses their people. Once that happens, all these State of the art American arms is going to fall into the hands of some radical Muslim group that will revolt and replace the current regime, just like what happened in Afghanistan.
When Obama's Pastor Jeremiah Wright said America's chickens are coming home to roost, Republicans tried to Portray him as Communist and Anti American. But please use your logic to understand what he said, Our soldiers are getting killed by the same Arms, America Manufactures and sells to these countries. Isn’t that crazy?
Like I mentioned in the Socio-Economic section, Saudi Regime spent tens of millions of dollars in lobbying to influence the Biden Administration to sanction the Arms sales to them. This changed President Biden’s earlier stands on blocking the arms sale to Saudi sale due to the atrocities Saudi’s are committing in Yemen using these American weapons. They have killed more than 200,000 people in Yemen including Children. President Biden backed away from his campaign promise and approved this arms sale now. Please read the Opensecrets article on this below. It’s mind-blowing how people change their stands with the lobbying influence even from foreign governments. Just two days ago, Saudi killed 70 innocent people in Yemen with a missile attack.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/21/world/middleeast/yemen-saudi-arabia-airstrike.html
Suppose if a foreign government does not have the lobbying money to influence the US administration, like the African country Ethiopia, they get kicked off of the trade agreements, citing human rights violations.
Please read the Reuters article below.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ethiopia-conflict-trade-idCAKBN2HN1QQ
To give a background on the Ethiopia crisis, Ethiopia is fighting to defend its Democracy now because an ethnic minority backed terrorist organization called Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) with their army -Tigray Defense force (TDF) is marching towards the capital Addis Ababa to overthrow the democratically elected government under the PM Abiy Ahmed. Abiy Ahmed is Ethiopia’s new PM who was sworn-in in 2018. He ended the 20-year Border conflict with neighboring Eretria in 2018 and wanted his country to progress economically, A conflict that had killed more than 100,000 people on both sides. Abiy Ahmed even got a Nobel peace prize for this and numerous other peace awards, even recognized by Time magazine as the 100 Most Influential People in the world. Stopping the conflict with Eretria angered TPLF which controlled Tigray province in Ethiopia which was the epicenter of the border conflict with the Eretria. TPLF had a big influence on the former Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and his Government and Military. Meles Zenawi who was a Tigrayan-Ethiopian ruled Ethiopia for 20+ years with TPLF on his side. TPLF is considered a terrorist organization and is even in the Global Terrorism Database. When he got elected, The new PM Abiy Ahmed formed a new party called Prosperity Party in Ethiopia and ended the TPLF control on the government and military. Abiy Ahmed tried to end the ethnic federalism which the former Ethiopian government was based on and tried to take the country on a progressive path. They are not fighting with a neighboring country like Saudi is doing. Instead, they are fighting for their survival, their democracy. If TPLF overthrows the government in the second-most populous country in Africa with around 80 ethnic tribal regions, they will start massacring the majority of Oromo and Amhara tribes and it will be the worst humanitarian crisis world will ever see. So the PM Abiy Ahmed declared an emergency and called on all the Ethiopians to join the army to help defeat the TFLF/TDF rebels.
Please read this BBC article to see how bad the situation is
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-59288744
In the midst of all this, the United States kicking them off from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and trade agreements will destroy their economy which is hugely dependent on agriculture exports and will mainly affect Women and Children in that country. This will destabilize the government and probably help the rebels to take over. You can read the importance of agriculture exports on Ethiopia’s economy on the International Trade Administration web site and the necessity of the Trade agreements to receive US Aid.
https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/ethiopia-agricultural-sector
Now I have one simple question. If anyone can answer.
Why would Biden Administration Jeopardize a Poor African country’s and its Prime minister’s effort, A PM who is highly regarded as a good person around the world, in order to save their democracy in te middle of a Pandemic? Civil wars always have consequences and people will have to fight to survive. We had one in this country too to keep our democracy intact correct.
Sametime Why would Biden Administration don’t care about the crimes against Humanity in Yemen by the Saudi forces, even selling more Arms to Saudi’s to do more atrocities against the people of Yemen?
This is not the type of foreign policy we expected from this Democratic Government. Looks like this type of Foreign policy is geared towards the interest of lobbyists representing Raytheon and the Saudi Government. There cannot be a better example than this that we are heading in the wrong direction.
by Hari Ramachandran