Russia: Or Why China is The True Threat to The World and The US 2021

Russia: Biden vs Putin

Today, on June 16th, 2021, US President Joe Biden met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at Geneva to discuss relations between the U.S and Russia. According to ABC, this meeting is taking place in order to “lower the temperature” between the two countries. Of course with the departure of Trump, many people are wondering about the collusion between the Russians and the 2016 election. With mentions of nuclear weapons and war crimes, it would be easy to think we are living in the 1950s and not 2021. This meeting brings up a lot of important questions about the US as a world power and our relations with Russia.

Russia
https://www.reuters.com/world/low-expectations-what-biden-putin-will-joust-over-summit-2021-06-15/

But at the end of the day is Russia really an issue for the US? While yes, we do have a history of problems with them, are they an important issue now? Considering the socio-economic effects of COVID-19 and our 28 Trillion Dollar Debt, the affairs of Russian politics hardly matter to the average individual trying to get by. Not that other countries aren’t a threat to the US, however, this McCarthyism of labeling Russia as the enemy is ridiculous when the real threat is China. 

Why China Is Crueler Than Russia

Russia
Tiananmen Square 1989
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2012/06/tiananmen-square-then-and-now/100311/

One might argue that the vile dictatorship in North Korea is much worse than the day-to-day lives of the Chinese people. While the state of North Korea is awful, it’s China that is supporting them. As their main trading partner, China provides protection and economic stability to North Korea and without them, their empire would crumble. And just in case you thought supporting a Hitlerian dictatorship was bad, let’s not forget how the Chinese treat their own citizens.

A prime example of this mistreatment and supreme government dictatorship is the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre where Chinese free speech protesters were massacred by their own government. Not only were they killed, but all mentions of this event were scrubbed from history books and online access. Even now, China has concentration camps for Muslim citizens and other minority groups. I don’t really believe in the US playing policeman of the world but if we are going to take a country to task, China is our target, not Russia. 

China’s Economic Power Steamrolls Russia

However, one does not need to look at the problems China poses toward their own citizens and other countries, as they have been screwing over and running our economy for decades. China is the #1 country for outsourcing for US companies with 14 million Chinese workers employed by the US. While outsourcing has its benefits in lowering costs for consumers, none of that matters when all of those jobs are being outsourced to a foreign country instead of employing US citizens. Those lower costs mean nothing when our U3 unemployment rate is 6.1% and our U6 is 10.4%. That is 14 million jobs that could be going to fix our unemployment rate!

Russia
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/07/business/houston-rockets-nba-china-daryl-morey/index.html

Not only do we offshore our labor to China, but we also have given them portions of our intellectual property. The great American entertainment monopoly Disney has had its share of ties and funding from China. Disney has allowed its resorts to be controlled by the Chinese government through their investor the Shanghai Shendi Group. Not only do they make tons of money from China, they also bend to the will of their ways by editing films for the Chinese market. They quite literally sympathize with Chinese communist propaganda with the messages in the Mulan remake and even film near the concentration camps I mentioned earlier. 

We aren’t even safe when it comes to the world of sports when the general manager of the NBA team the Houston Rockets, Daryl Morey tweeted a pro-Hong-Kong protest message a hell-storm broke loose. All ties between the Rockets and China were cut and the team was forced to issue an apology. There is no reason that a general manager of an American sports team should be forced to apologize for a political statement. In fact, there shouldn’t have been a tie between a local American sports team and the Chinese government in any way shape, or form.

Russia and China: A Solution

So why did I mention the Russia and US meeting if the point of this article is to talk about China? Well, I think the diplomatic approach to solving these issues is the way to go about taking care of these incredibly complex problems. I think a meeting between the US and China should be similar to the way this meeting panned out. A respectable conversation where the groundwork is laid out and information is delivered professionally. However, I think the only way to truly solve this is to get other countries involved to discuss and work on a reliable way to fix the core problem that China brings to the US and the rest of the world.

To read more about the meeting between Biden and Putin click here.