Biden warns China is going to ‘eat our lunch’ if U.S. doesn’t get moving on infrastructure

[xizhimen]

Biden warns China is going to ‘eat our lunch’ if U.S. doesn’t get moving on infrastructure​

PUBLISHED THU, FEB 11 20211:05 PM EST

KEY POINTS

• Biden warned a bipartisan group of senators in a meeting Thursday that China is aggressively outpacing the United States on infrastructure.
• “They’re investing a lot of money, they’re investing billions of dollars and dealing with a whole range of issues that relate to transportation, the environment and a whole range of other things,” Biden said.
• The meeting and a telephone call between Xi and Biden come as the new U.S. administration works to address human rights abuses and mend trade relations with the world’s second-largest economy.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden warned lawmakers Thursday that China is aggressively outpacing the United States on infrastructure.
“They’re investing a lot of money, they’re investing billions of dollars and dealing with a whole range of issues that relate to transportation, the environment and a whole range of other things,” Biden said he told a bipartisan group of senators whom he met with in the Oval Office.

“They have a major, major new initiative on rail and they already have rail that goes 225 miles an hour with ease,” he explained, adding that he spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping for two hours on Wednesday. “They’re going to, you know, if we don’t get moving, they’re going to eat our lunch,” Biden said after the meeting with the members of the Environment and Public Works committee.

“We just have to step up. And so what I’d like to talk to these folks about — since they are the key committee — is how we begin this. I’ve laid out what I think we should be doing,” the president added.
The phone call with Xi and the meeting with lawmakers come as the new U.S. administration works to address human rights abuses and mend trade relations with the world’s second-largest economy.
Last week during an address at the State Department Biden said that he would work more closely with allies in order to mount pushback against Beijing.
“We will confront China’s economic abuses,” Biden said, describing Beijing as America’s “most serious competitor.”

The tension between Beijing and Washington, the world’s two largest economies, soared under the Trump administration, which escalated a trade war and worked to ban Chinese technology companies from doing business in the U.S.
In an interview with CBS, Biden said that his administration is ready for “extreme competition” with China but that his approach would be different from his predecessor’s.
“I’m not going to do it the way Trump did. We are going to focus on the international rules of the road,” Biden said Sunday.

After his remarks at the Pentagon on Wednesday, a reporter asked Biden whether he had any interest in punishing China over the nation’s lack of transparency about the Covid-19 outbreak last year.
“I’m interested in getting all the facts,” Biden said, according to a pool report.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken talked for the first time with his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi, over the weekend.

In a tense call, Blinken told Yang the U.S. would hold China to account for a slew of issues including human rights abuses.
Blinken also called on Beijing to condemn the recent military coup in Myanmar.

Biden warns China is going to 'eat our lunch' if U.S. doesn't get moving on infrastructure

The telephone call between Xi and Biden comes as the new U.S. administration works to mend trade relations with the world's second-largest economy.

www.cnbc.com

 

[ekemenirtu]

It is heartening to see that China remains a key focus area for the current administration.

I have long contended that it is not and it was never the disorganized and less advanced peoples of the wider Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, ASEAN, Balkans, South America or the entirety of Africa that would pose a challenge to the Western world order.

It is only likely that a European populated country or community, or an East Asian country or alliance, would be able - at least, in theory - to challenge Western preeminence.

The world's most populous country is East Asian. Its population exceeds that of any other country, or any continent outside Asia. Its civilization extends back 5,000 years. Or so the Sinophiles like Martin Jacques or Dr Joseph Needham would have their audience believe. It has even been described as a civilizational state, a feature rather uncommon or perhaps, unique among current nation-states in the world.

East Asian states have also exhibited the ability, in the current era, of developing advanced and sophisticated countries that are able to provide their citizenry with high standards of living well beyond the global average and as measured by more than simple national account statistics.

A convenient trick, when looking at the potential of various 'civilizations' to develop in the current era, has been to look at the richer or more advanced tiny/micro/small states populated primarily by members belonging to those civilizations.

For example, for the wider Arab world, we may look at the Gulf Cooperation Council members and evaluate how successful they have been and what their success portends for the future of more populous Arab countries. As a convenient proxy for Iran, it can be argued that Bahrain - where the US Navy Fifth Fleet is headquartered - be taken a closer look at. For interested readers, it may be surprising to learn that Bahrain supposedly belonged to Iran only several decades ago. I would not venture into the political implications of the way certain nation-states have been formed in the region.

We might look at Mauritius or Fiji to take a peek into India's future or so the theory goes.

In the case of China, we have ethnic Chinese populated Taiwan or Singapore, and to some extent, the tiny Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong or Macau. Taiwan or Singapore may be of interest because both of them possess armed forces, of some sort, and at some time or the other, manufactured integrated circuits on a commercial basis. Beyond that, Taiwan has had a thriving electronics industry and produced some of the leading players in the sector. Their diversified economy is high tech and although politically isolated, they have been able to become a technological powerhouse of sorts within a relatively short period of five decades or so.

Apart from that, Japan and South Korea are often seen as culturally related to China through history and are said to share genetic links. These two countries are also technological powerhouses of some sort or the other in various ways and I suppose, do not need much in the way of introduction.


For comparing the three civilizations, we might look at the respective EDB (Economic Development Boards) of the three island states belonging to the three respective civilizations.

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Why invest in Bahrain? Our growing economy offers exciting investment opportunities within a profitable business environment. Learn more today.

www.bahrainedb.com

https://www.edbmauritius.org

https://www.edb.gov.sg

The three islands are pretty small. Less than 2100 sq km each. Singapore's population < 6m
Bahrain's population < 1.6m
Mauritius population < 1.6m



A quick look at some of the sectors mentioned shows the following for SG:

https://www.edb.gov.sg/en/our-industries/electronics.html

At a Glance​

$64.8bil​

of output (USD) achieved in 2015, accounting for 31.6% of Singapore’s total manufacturing output.

2%-5%​

annual growth in productivity over the past decade registered by the electronics sector.

S$3.3bil​

of fixed asset investments (FAI) attracted by the electronics sector in 2015, which made up 28.6% of the total FAI committed to Singapore. It was second only to the chemicals sector, which accounted for 31.3%.

>68k​

workers, accounting for 17% of Singapore’s manufacturing workforce.

Infineon Technologies​

The future of advanced semiconductor manufacturing is taking shape at Infineon Technologies’ “smart factory” in Singapore, which will harness elements like robotics, analytics, and automation to boost productivity and enhance yield. Singapore is also home to Infineon’s regional headquarters and Design Centre, a 300-man R&D operation working on diverse areas from microcontroller design to system solutions for automotive and industrial applications.

​

Micron Technology​

Micron entered Singapore in 1998 and has since grown its team here to 7,500 people, representing its largest site outside the United States. Micron is tapping Singapore’s advanced manufacturing capabilities to run NAND Center of Excellence, with the full value chain of – from R&D to volume fabrication, assembly, and test – in Singapore.


Other industries listed by their EDB

Our Industries​

Aerospace
Consumer Businesses
Creative Industries
Energy & Chemicals
Information & Communications Technology
Logistics & Supply Chain Management
Oil & Gas Equipment and Services
Medical Technology
Natural Resources
Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology
Precision Engineering
Professional Services
Urban Solutions & Sustainability




For Bahrain, the following sectors and important players are mentioned although I suppose the list is incomplete:

In the case of Mauritius, their EDB tells us:

Even after we factor in the population differences, it seems quite clear that SG is arguably the more advanced of the three island states, slightly ahead of Bahrain perhaps.

The two tiny islands of SG and Bahrain are also considerably more advanced than the other island of Mauritius, it appears.

In this context, it would not be unwise to expect the larger "civilizations" from which the majority populations originate, their "motherland" of sorts, to exhibit similar patterns of development and advancements.

Surprisingly, we find that China is yet to trounce India in a conventional war since 1979 - the year of Chinese economic opening up - and yet to surpass the United States - a country with less than 25% of China's population - in most indicators of military, geopolitical, financial, diplomatic, scientific and technological prowess.

That is quite an underachievement by all means.

And quite a surprise indeed.

 

[xizhimen]

Surprisingly, we find that China is yet to trounce India in a conventional war since 1979 - the year of Chinese economic opening up - and yet to surpass the United States - a country with less than 25% of China's population - in most indicators of military, geopolitical, financial, diplomatic, scientific and technological prowess.

That is quite an underachievement by all means.

And quite a surprise indeed.

China builds almost all weapons by herself and India buys all weapons from foreign countries.
After 1979 China's focus shifted from exporting revolution to developing her own economy, military expense gave way to economic development for decades, China just started to rebuild her military couples of years ago after enabled by much strengthened economy.

 

[Raptor]

China builds almost all weapons by herself and India buys all weapons from foreign countries

You're prolly living in 2010

 

[Gary]

Si Biden changes his mind?

Years ago Biden infamously said that China isn't going to eat their lunch.

 

[ekemenirtu]

China builds almost all weapons by herself and India buys all weapons from foreign countries.
After 1979 China's focus shifted from exporting revolution to developing her own economy, military expense gave way to economic development for decades, China just started to rebuild her military couples of years ago after enabled by much strengthened economy.

Thank you for this interesting perspective.

Given how well/poorly micro/small/tiny states of Chinese and Indian ethnicities have performed around the world in the current era, I would have expected Chinese lead over India to be much greater.

Let's take a look at Taiwan and compare with similarly populated Sri Lanka. While Sri Lanka is certainly not Indian, the overlap in ethnic, cultural and historical terms is certainly not insignificant.

We may also like to compare Sri Lanka or Nepal, another country with similar population size, and also with ethnic, religious, cultural and historic ties to India, with the isolated, dictatorial, authoritarian, one party state of North Korea.

My understanding is that on most measures of scientific, technological, industrial, military or civilian advancements both Taiwan and North Korea will come out ahead of Sri Lanka or Nepal by a significant degree.

I may be wrong on this issue and I would be glad to be proven wrong, if anybody would be generous enough to point to those errors and the appropriate corrections.

Military development can go hand in hand with economic development. I do not believe they are contradictory or mutually exclusive. Many countries that are rich and advanced today also maintain relatively strong armed forces, specially relative to their population sizes. Newly Industrialized Economies of ROK and ROC are perhaps good examples of such. I would argue due to a number of favourable external factors and some internal factors that I will not mention here the ROK has developed an apparently strong armed force that would be stronger than any ethnic Indian state of similar population anywhere in the world, if such a comparison can be correctly made.

 

[xizhimen]

Thank you for this interesting perspective.

Given how well/poorly micro/small/tiny states of Chinese and Indian ethnicities have performed around the world in the current era, I would have expected Chinese lead over India to be much greater.

Let's take a look at Taiwan and compare with similarly populated Sri Lanka. While Sri Lanka is certainly not Indian, the overlap in ethnic, cultural and historical terms is certainly not insignificant.

We may also like to compare Sri Lanka or Nepal, another country with similar population size, and also with ethnic, religious, cultural and historic ties to India, with the isolated, dictatorial, authoritarian, one party state of North Korea.

My understanding is that on most measures of scientific, technological, industrial, military or civilian advancements both Taiwan and North Korea will come out ahead of Sri Lanka or Nepal by a significant degree.

I may be wrong on this issue and I would be glad to be proven wrong, if anybody would be generous enough to point to those errors and the appropriate corrections.

Military development can go hand in hand with economic development. I do not believe they are contradictory or mutually exclusive. Many countries that are rich and advanced today also maintain relatively strong armed forces, specially relative to their population sizes. Newly Industrialized Economies of ROK and ROC are perhaps good examples of such. I would argue due to a number of favourable external factors and some internal factors that I will not mention here the ROK has developed an apparently strong armed force that would be stronger than any ethnic Indian state of similar population anywhere in the world, if such a comparison can be correctly made.

Under whatever political systems, the core Confucius values remain the same, East Asians are more disciplined , collectively oriented and united comparing to other peoples.

 

[ekemenirtu]

Under whatever political systems, the core Confucius values remain the same, East Asians are more disciplined , collectively oriented and united comparing to other peoples.

In that case, China's failure to vanquish India post-1979 is a greater failure.

If China were akin to India in culture, religion, language, philosophy, political system and discipline, one could explain away its failure quite easily.

How can we do so now given the quite clear differences between the two giants (1.3 billion + people each)?

 

[xizhimen]

In that case, China's failure to vanquish India post-1979 is a greater failure.

If China were akin to India in culture, religion, language, philosophy, political system and discipline, one could explain away its failure quite easily.

How can we do so now given the quite clear differences between the two giants (1.3 billion + people each)?

Why China has to conquer India? Chinese people traditionally were an inward looking bunch and didn't care much about the outside world, that's why the Chinese built so many walls around each city, village and household in the past, and the well known the Great Wall.

 

[ekemenirtu]

Why China has to conquer India? Chinese people traditionally were an inward looking bunch and didn't care much about the outside world, that's why the Chinese built so many walls around each city, village and household in the past, and the well known the Great Wall.

China does not need to conquer India.

However, China fought a war with India in 1962. There are still lingering border disputes between the two countries. There are geopolitical rivalries and tensions. The ongoing tension over the border in the Ladakh region for the last few years also erodes the deterrence that the Chinese would have liked to create against stronger adversaries.

The relationship can be best summed by a well circulated Chinese proverb.

“一山不容二虎(yì shān bù róng èr hǔ)

"One mountain cannot accommodate two tigers"

Chinese Proverb: 一山不容二虎 (yì shān bù róng èr hǔ) - eChineseLearning

There is a proverb 一山不容二虎, but The only way possible for two tigers to be tolerant with each other is when one is a male and the other a female.

www.echineselearning.com

I am not a Mandarin speaker. You could correct me if the translation provided there is incorrect.

If the USA, or its decisionmakers post 1991, had the foresight to learn this Chinese idiom, perhaps, they would not be facing the predicament they do today from a rival which shares no racial, religous, linguistic, historical, civilizational, political or cultural bonds with them.

It is much more difficult for any Western citizen to accept Chinese dominance than it is for them to accept the dominance of any European country or any Western country.

 

[xizhimen]

China does not need to conquer India.

However, China fought a war with India in 1962. There are still lingering border disputes between the two countries. There are geopolitical rivalries and tensions. The ongoing tension over the border in the Ladakh region for the last few years also erodes the deterrence that the Chinese would have liked to create against stronger adversaries.

The relationship can be best summed by a well circulated Chinese proverb.

“一山不容二虎(yì shān bù róng èr hǔ)

"One mountain cannot accommodate two tigers"

Chinese Proverb: 一山不容二虎 (yì shān bù róng èr hǔ) - eChineseLearning

There is a proverb 一山不容二虎, but The only way possible for two tigers to be tolerant with each other is when one is a male and the other a female.

www.echineselearning.com

I am not a Mandarin speaker. You could correct me if the translation provided there is incorrect.

If the USA, or its decisionmakers post 1991, had the foresight to learn this Chinese idiom, perhaps, they would not be facing the predicament they do today from a rival which shares no racial, religous, linguistic, historical, civilizational, political or cultural bonds with them.

It is much more difficult for any Western citizen to accept Chinese dominance than it is for them to accept the dominance of any European country or any Western country.

You used that idiom correctnly, but China knows her weaknesses and can't not fix all external issues all at once, we don't want to make many enemies at the same time. in one word, China is not strong enough.
We'll fix Taiwan issues and border issues with India, at a time that we believe is befitting. I think China intends to wear India down economically by repeated small border conflicts first. China is holding all the cards in this conflict, but right now is not a right time for China to solve this problem once and for all.

 

[xizhimen]

It is much more difficult for any Western citizen to accept Chinese dominance than it is for them to accept the dominance of any European country or any Western country.

China never shares this western colonial "domination" mentality, we just want to live and do business in a peaceful world and being treated as an equal, that's it.

 

[ekemenirtu]

China never shares this western colonial "domination" mentality, we just want to live and do business in a peaceful world and being treated as an equal, that's it.

Chinese formal position, as stated by Chinese officials, was that the artificial islands in the South China Sea would never be militarized.

Afterwards, that promise lost its relevance. I don't see why China would allow a rival, perhaps the greatest potential rival in the form of India, to strengthen itself to become a challenger to China and perhaps surpass China at one time in the future.

China's Decision To Militarize The South China Sea Is A Danger To America

It's about more than fishing rights.

nationalinterest.org

China's Decision To Militarize The South China Sea Is A Danger To America​

Here's What You Need To Remember: The country’s geography leaves it with basically one ocean, the Pacific, for its own bastion. The Northern Pacific, with the U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet and the nearly fifty destroyers of the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force, is a no-go. The South China Sea, on the other hand, is bordered by a number of relatively weak states that could not pose a threat to China’s nuclear-missile submarines.

..
China’s military outposts in the South China Sea are a breach of Beijing’s agreement to not militarize the sea.

 

[xizhimen]

Chinese formal position, as stated by Chinese officials, was that the artificial islands in the South China Sea would never be militarized.

Afterwards, that promise lost its relevance. I don't see why China would allow a rival, perhaps the greatest potential rival in the form of India, to strengthen itself to become a challenger to China and perhaps surpass China at one time in the future.

China's Decision To Militarize The South China Sea Is A Danger To America

It's about more than fishing rights.

nationalinterest.org

China's Decision To Militarize The South China Sea Is A Danger To America​

Here's What You Need To Remember: The country’s geography leaves it with basically one ocean, the Pacific, for its own bastion. The Northern Pacific, with the U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet and the nearly fifty destroyers of the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force, is a no-go. The South China Sea, on the other hand, is bordered by a number of relatively weak states that could not pose a threat to China’s nuclear-missile submarines.

..
China’s military outposts in the South China Sea are a breach of Beijing’s agreement to not militarize the sea.

It's just a normal development, China's defence budget is only 2% of her GDP comparing to 5% of US, one can't expect China to keep a same navy that she had 20 years ago while her economy has already dozens of times bigger.

 

[ekemenirtu]

It's just a normal development, China's defence budget is only 2% of her GDP comparing to 5% of US, one can't expect China to keep a same navy that she had 20 years ago while her economy has already dozens of times bigger.

Building artificial islands in the South China Sea has nothing to do with a country's GDP or the size of its navy.

Promising to never militarize the artificial islands in the South China Sea have nothing to do with a country's GDP or the size of its navy.

Reneging on such a promise has nothing to do with a country's GDP or the size of its navy.

 

[ekemenirtu]

I must stress that negligence of defence is tantamount to a criminal offence, in reality.

Victims of such negligence are numerous. The neighbours of India are some of the most glaring examples.

Other glaring examples can be found in the wider Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia corridor.

As the article below confirms, negligence of defence is what makes ASEAN a prime target for Chinese expansionism.

China's Decision To Militarize The South China Sea Is A Danger To America

It's about more than fishing rights.

nationalinterest.org

China's Decision To Militarize The South China Sea Is A Danger To America​

Here's What You Need To Remember: The country’s geography leaves it with basically one ocean, the Pacific, for its own bastion. The Northern Pacific, with the U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet and the nearly fifty destroyers of the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force, is a no-go. The South China Sea, on the other hand, is bordered by a number of relatively weak states that could not pose a threat to China’s nuclear-missile submarines.

..
China’s military outposts in the South China Sea are a breach of Beijing’s agreement to not militarize the sea.



Let us look at a map of China to obtain a more clear picture of the geography.

To its North, China is effectively locked out thanks to a powerful Russia with its massive arsenal of nuclear warheads and ICBMs.

To its southwest lies another potential challenger and perhaps, the most potent challenger in the future considering its almost equally large population - India.

Somehow or the other, PRC remains the only Chinese/related ethnicity majority country in the world that has repeatedly failed to dislodge, dismember, eviscerate, devastate or decimate a smaller ethnically Indian country.

A comparison with other ethnically Chinese or related populations with similar sized countries populated by ethnic Indians or related groups tells us a compelling story. Compare Japan with Bangladesh - if you believe Japan is close in racial, ethnic and/or cultural terms to China and Bangladesh is similarly comparable to India.

Compare Taiwan or North Korea (in military terms, to be more apt) with Sri Lanka or Nepal. You may like to compare South Korea with any ethnically Indian country you like but I have so far failed to find such a country with a comparable population to that of RoK.

The difference could not be more stark.

It is the lazy, negligent nature of the ASEAN governments that have allowed China an opening. As the article above explains in clear terms, thanks to the relatively large and advanced JMSDF fleet coupled with USN presence in Japan, the Chinese are also locked out of their Northern shores.

This leaves a relatively isolated and what they perceive as weak Taiwan as one avenue for expanding their naval presence.

The other avenue is the South China Sea given the weak state of each and every ASEAN member state's defences.

Weakness often invites aggression.

ASEAN countries, much like EU members, the entire corridor from Middle East North Africa to Central Asia, subsaharan Africa and Latin America are effectively inviting aggression.

ASEAN members are particularly vulnerable at this juncture in the face of an expansionist China.

The oft repeated mantra of "money is all that matters" as repeated by some naive people has often been the undoing of many a country.