>>The idea that China is a major security threat is basically brand new

You're kidding right?

> The idea that China is a major security threat is basically brand new.

And as far as I can see, that idea comes from China simply having grown its economy to a size comparable to that of the USA, nothing else?

But everyone during the Chinese miracle growth (from 1980's to today) expected China would've become the largest economy in the world by the 2020's. I guess people just didn't really take that seriously until it actually became true?

Great for who's economic growth? As in, when staring at the graph of GDP vs wages plotted over the last 50 years, that big-ass pie slice that everyone's excited about? That appears to have ended up in roughly 800 people's pockets. Meanwhile even mention domestic manufacturing in the country that basically invented consumer electronics and kazoo music starts playing in the background. grits teeth We knew NAFTA was bullshit, we knew it was going to break basically everything, and yet folks just couldn't quite get mad enough to scare the political elite badly enough to back off. I love my country, we have always been at war with Eurasia, I am going the fuck to bed.

> The idea that China is a major security threat is basically brand new

That’s what I was taught when I grew up in the 1989ies.

China is a nuclear power and has been recognized as a major security threat since they acquired nuclear weapons (in the sixties?).

But your last sentence is true. Politicians and corporate executives failing to accurately extrapolate long-term consequences have not done us any favors over the past 50 years, and now we’re super fucked. It’d be hard even if we still had a competent government instead of the smoking ruin in progress.

(Thomas Friedman and his globalization-is-brilliant shtick making people think this was all OK wasn’t great either.)