Hacker News Reader

Comment by diego_moita | Hacker News Reader

> If you think a trade war is bad, imagine being a vassal state of China where the US

As a Latin American I laughed hard at this. For the last 60 years many 3rd world countries have been vassal states of the US and European Union, supplicating them to stop farming protectionism that keeps our economies so restricted. You know, "imperialism" is a word with deep meaning and a long history in 3rd world countries.

Probably I will regret later what I say now, but until then: welcome China, thanks for giving the "gringos" a taste of their own medicine.

View on HN

If you think America being supplicated by an even larger power is going to be good for the countries historically oppressed by America... you might be surprised. China's "Latin America" is Africa, they have little use for the actual Latin America.

Imagine the US being nuked as "a taste of their own medicine" for previously being the only country to use nukes... how would that work out for developing countries? I would guess not well. Not well at all. Just like a nuclear war impacts more than just the countries fighting, a trade war between two superpowers is going to hurt the developing world far more than it will hurt the US or China.

> they have little use for Latin America

Untrue. China has been making massive investments there to secure natural resources in the past few years.

People should be rightly concerned about the recent backtracking in China's governance, but that is independent of the concerns expressed here. The whole thing reeks of projection. Truth be told, America has benefited the most from the global trade era, with cheap goods and cheap capital practically bestowed like tributes from the entire world. Blame Congress for not redistributing that enormous windfall, not other countries for aspiring to the same standard of living as even the poorest Americans.

Let's forget about Africa/Latin America for a moment. The comparison always ignore 2 differences about the relations:

1.China build roads, buildings not only for living but also whole industrial parks that create jobs in Africa which local population can also benefit later on while the US seldom do the same thing at least with compatible scale. I'm not saying China is unselfishly helping Africans but it's more kind of long term selfish behavior that cultivate local stability and prosperity.

2.China don't set up values promotion preconditions for financial aids to Africa countries while US/Western countries often have a "universal values" promotion agenda combined with financial aids, maybe with good intention.

Western MSM almost always omit these 2 differences when making comparisons trying to sell their own belief that the relations are similar.

I would look past the juvenile jubilee and bigotry in celebrating comeuppance to the "gringos", but that's all your comment is.

It does nothing but mirror the radical mindset you choose to focus on within America. One might suggest if you were serious about positive change, or even just having a discussion in this thread, you would provide some insight and knowledge toward solutions.

As a Latin American, it's disheartening to read.

It is no good to see this complex world in binary terms like China vs. US.

As a Latin American you surely noticed how large the China tentacles are. Latin America is full of ongoing Chinese projects where a little local complain trigger a call from the Chinese president.

In Latin America a lot of problems can be explained by internal forces (e.g. corruption). As the Martin Fierro[1] says "Los hermanos sean unidos porque ésa es la ley primera. Tengan unión verdadera en cualquier tiempo que sea, porque si entre ellos se pelean, los devoran los de afuera" [2]

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mart%C3%ADn_Fierro

[2] "Let brothers be united, because that’s the first law. Have a true union in any time that goes, because if they fight each other, they get devoured from outside."

When I first learned about neoliberalism it was from The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. Much of the focus in the book was on American corporations and bankers forcing Latin American companies to "open up" and the economic and political chaos that resulted.

Really you have to hand it to China. They figured out how to play the game to win. And now it's their western counterparties that are suffering economic and political chaos.

Then recognize that it’s not a good position, and what happens when you don’t have leverage to effect change. The US still has leverage, but for how long? The US government has a fiduciary duty to the American people to make sure this doesn’t happen even if it means I can’t afford the top of the line iPhone.

Well said, it is time for us to know what it is liked to get fucked a bit. Should help us be better neighbors. I am excited we are getting to this point, and also afraid, a non-uni-lateral world might be one that ends in violence.

Who exactly does the protectionism help? Does Brazil's 100% tax on iPads and computers help anyone? There still aren't any Brazilian iPad or computer parts makers, but that doesn't stop the government from forcing citizens to pay double.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com