the_dunk_tank

Seeing China treat our government in good faith is painful

I don't think that China is treating the US govt in good faith. They often call out the bad faith statements which come from DC and contrast them with their win-win diplomacy. China wants to hang on to the international institutions which the US dominates and circumvents with privileges gained at gunpoint, brute force or complete disregard, until these institutions exist in a context where the US has no ability to enforce such measures. While the US would certainly like a top-down imperial structure where countries are unable to do diplomacy with one another instead of in line with its desired geopolitical economic hierarchies, even in the current "unipolar" moment these institutions are a useful platform for diplomacy. I think China should ditch the IMF at this point as it is clear they won't allow any actions to be taken to loosen debt subsystems which keep cheap goods flowing into the us for USD. Very profitable too to have for instance the Saudis dumping lobby money & asset purchases on the US in the hopes this produces actual goodwill. This has only taken a turn recently with its accession to BRICS and reopening of diplomatic channels with Iran (a significant blow to the US whatever our opinions of the respective govts (or oil companies in a trenchcoat))