cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/59118855
- “Given the increasingly severe international situation, I believe we may truly be at a turning point in history,” Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya said at the start of the meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul. “That makes it even more important to overcome division and confrontation through dialogue and cooperation,” he added.
Yet they’re all maintaining their anti-Chinese tarrifs and policies; some are expanding upon them like Mexico.
The US has a huge amount of economic leverage over them by design, so they can’t just openly go against the US demands. It’s going to be a process from realizing they need to wean themselves off the US market to actually making it happen.
The problem is that decoupling from the US is a very complicated process, especially when it comes to technology. Well, it’s complicated in the sense of how to decouple without hurting corporate profits/control, or giving rise to a populist momentum.
Indeed, the oligarchs don’t want to rock the boat and they will fight any attempts to redirect trade because that would negatively affect them.