China is emerging as a global public goods provider as the US proves unable and unwilling to lead.
This is an important development, and if the trend continues, it’s one with potentially serious consequences for the US role in the world.
This is an important development, and if the trend continues, it’s one with potentially serious consequences for the US role in the world.
Yes, Italy will pay China for these supplies, but the fact China can uniquely provide them and is willing to do so during a time of scarcity has political implications as well.
We need a through review of why the US lacks the industrial capacity to make masks, antibiotics, or medical equipment to protect its own people or to help others.
Manufacturing capacity in these sectors is a domestic & intl public good.
And we need policies to restore it.
Manufacturing capacity in these sectors is a domestic & intl public good.
And we need policies to restore it.
We let this capacity atrophy. And that decision warrants scrutiny and swift reversal.
*None of this* excuses China’s coverup of the coronavirus.
But the CCP is working hard to turn the narrative, and a few months from now when more countries are in Italy’s situation, these gestures will mean even more.
But the CCP is working hard to turn the narrative, and a few months from now when more countries are in Italy’s situation, these gestures will mean even more.
To clarify, my first tweet in this thread is not a celebration of the CCP as a public goods provider but a lamentation that the US is struggling to occupy that role because of industrial erosion.
All this has domestic and geopolitical consequences, like US dependence on the PRC.
All this has domestic and geopolitical consequences, like US dependence on the PRC.
