China is the "big bad." It is not the "only bad." And how bad of a threat is it?
Should Washington deprioritize, perhaps even disengage from, regions outside East Asia so it can concentrate on the threat posed by China?
Answer: We could lose the world if we fixate on China.
Remember, China is a big potential threat; but we face active threats in Europe and the Middle East. Tunnel vision is dangerous.
And is it even necessary? China is weaker than it appears. The author notes analysis from 2019 that says China over-states its GDP by 30%. I've noted that oddly, everyone seems to have ignored claims that China has lied about its economic growth.
Is the claim true? We need to know if China is or is not the elephant in the room. And consider this from the article on China's appearance of strength:
Dan Blumenthal succinctly explained China’s growth model to me: "China builds a building, which increases GDP, knocks it down, which increases GDP again, and then builds it back to add to its GDP numbers."
Statistics are a useful tool until those who need good statistics game the definitions.
Let's not panic into a stupid decision that abandons the world to its fate in order to hyper-fixate on China; and then doubles the stupidity by packing our military power into bases conveniently close to China for a theater-wide Pearl Harbor, eh?
You must admit there is a long history of that kind of "new threat" thinking here--for good and bad reasons.
NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here.
NOTE: I'm adding updates on the Last Hamas War in this post.NOTE: You may also read my posts on Substack, at The Dignified Rant: Evolved.