I don’t want to overstate this too much, but I think it’s definitely a very relevant factor to consider that the west, especially the USA, has been ever-more aggressive towards China as they’ve gained the autonomy to fully dictate things they will produce on their terms and sell on their terms and especially in regards to America’s favorite thing to focus on in the last 100 years… energy and specifically oil.
It seems no coincidence that the combination of renewable energy sources being produced in a country that the US has to accept it can no longer dominate and the crisis of climate change necessitating moving from the energy source that US capital spent 100 years murdering across the globe to secure stable sources of is happening simultaneously with an ever-growing fear campaign against the Chinese state as a whole. In the past the US would bend nations to its will and simply assassinate and coup those it didn’t want to work with or couldn’t work with. Unfortunately for the US capitalists, they’ve finally met a country they can’t force to bend to their will and can and will, given time, erode the networks that gave the US power (control over petroleum and the wealth that came from it).
Just one of many things, but considering oil was at the heart of a ton of wars and conflicts, it probably can’t be discounted. Also, Americans can once again blame our shitty, greedy capitalists and politicians for the US not transitioning from oil 10-20 years ago. In 2008 when oil spiked super high, that was definitely the time to clearly go “oh… this sucks… let’s do solar and other renewables.” Many of us said it at the time even back then. I know nuclear is controversial, but in 2008 when the choice was “well solar technology is still not that great, nuclear is a mastered technology but scary to people, and oil is a nonstarter going forward… right?” Wrong! Any reasonable, logical, not-driven-by-oil-profits nation would’ve gone “uh, so build nuclear plants across the nation and throw billions into renewables research.” So what did the US do? Absolutely fuck all. Of course some universities here and around the globe kept researching and improving solar, etc. And now of course solar and wind, etc. are viable to the point that nuclear can (to my understanding, and I’m really not trying to do a back and forth pro/con nuclear energy thing- I don’t care either way that much) be basically ignored and just focus on solar, wind, hydro, etc. And yet, here in the moment as it’s arrived, the US did not lead the way in an inevitable transition from oil to renewable.
This should piss people off, but unfortunately due to propaganda and a general (sorry to say) stupidity and arrogance amongst Americans, they end up pissed off at “them goddamn Chinese commies!” for using a centrally planned economy to pivot into necessary tech and production and, simply put, outplaying America. This time the outmaneuvering can’t be dealt with with classic American brute strength because China has now reached a status in the world that America hasn’t had to contend with in over three decades. Another superpower with the ability to stare the leaders in the face and simply say “no” when asked or demanded to stop doing things counter to the wishes of American capital. Of course the capitalists could’ve seen this was coming and prepared to do something more than flail their arms and cry about Taiwan 24/7, but then again, war production is also extremely profitable…
Also worth noting that imperialism was ultimately the reason US ended up in this situation. Imagine where US could be now if all the money and resources that were invested in trying to colonize Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Afghanistan were instead devoted towards productive endeavours as China did.
Libs: deindustrialise
China: now produces most of the things
Libs:
