The United States and China Conflict

Since the end of the Cold War in 1989, the United States has taken an approach that involves integrating the Chinese economy into international financial markets and global trade in hopes that the growth of the Chinese economy will lead to economic and, most importantly, democratic reforms.

(My behind the paywall link.)

Unfortunately, this is proving to be a colossal strategic mistake because rather than becoming a beacon of democracy, China has become the biggest threat to American and Western influence, with economic prosperity built upon the working classes in the United States and the Global North.

The way globalisation works is that each nation, where originally generalists were good at manufacturing, financial services, and cash crops, became specialists after 1945.

A great example of this economic specialisation is Germany and China creating manufacturing goods, the United Kingdom with its financial services and the legacy of the British Empire regarding finance, and finally, the Chinese handling the lower and middle end of manufacturing, such as semiconductors.

China is currently the world’s largest semiconductor market in terms of consumption. In 2020, China represented 53.7% of worldwide chip sales or $239.45 billion out of $446.1 billion. However, a large percentage of these products are imported from multinational suppliers.