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I don’t know at what point since World War Two that global power relationships have been stagnant. They were always shifting not for the US so-called global hegemon but because of it. Neither the then Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia and China, nor their proxies, ever liked US geopilitical and geoeconomic primacy, although, one can argue, Dengist Chinese reforms benefitted greatly from US imports as much as Guangdong benefitted from Hong Kong capital and Xiamen from Taiwanese capital inflows. And later US MNCs followed by EU m

MNCs established manufacturing operations in China. All combined it greatly benefitted China. But US hegemony remained in China’s craw.

There are at least two connected reasons why the Chinese yuan poses little to zero threat to US dollar dominance. One is that China holds substantial currency reserves in US dollars and is happy to earn US dollars. It also holds substantial US treasuries in the form of US debt. And mainland Chinese prefer to hold US dollars than yuan, suggesting they are wary of the Xi regime’s political and economic policies.

As for US-Indo relations, Washington DC hasn’t barked at New Delhi over the latter’s arms, gas and oil imports from Russia. Why? Because DC needs India for the Indo-Pacific pact to work to push back China’s territorial ambitions, while it can’t rely on unstable, corrupt, bankrupt and snivelling Pakistan which still habors Islamic terrorists. But China is happy to embrace Islamabad and line it up for Beijing’s yuan debt dependency, not diplomacy. But there are problems with the compatibility of India’s Soviet-era arms with its coalition partners’ arsenal. And while India ramps up his defence spending and oul and gas imports bills, there are severe opportunity costs for sections of India’s industry and class and caste divided “society”.

As for Southeast Asia, its rank hypocrisy on staying “neutral” in big power contests amounts to a great sham. It fears China but wants Chinese investments and loans as much as it does US investments and US military protection. It’s caught in a pincer but that’s what Asean hypocrisy inevitably brings to its shores — self-made problems. Meanwhile, the Philippines returns to become US geopolitical dependency at the same time as Asean runs out of gas and ideas on how to solve its murderous Burmese junta problem. But Asean has always been excellent at grand pretense.

The last thing the Asian region needs is for grubby Xi and China to take military action against any of its “neighbors” over contested territories and an invasion of Taiwan. Because (a) they won’t win against China (b) they will run for US cover (c) they will be embroiled in a Sino-Taiwan war and (d) there blows the “laughable Asian Century.

PS: Sorry for any typos but puny cellphone keyboards are murder for big fingers!

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