China's trade surplus reached a historic $1 trillion.
🧵On how China broke the conventional neoliberal view on trade.
An interesting contribution to the surplus is the plateauing of Chinese imports.
Linked to the industrial upgrade of China, there are just not many things we need to buy from other countries, other than things we can't make, such as raw material.
Many take China's existence as the world's factory for granted, but before the rise of China in the 1990s the world economy were a lot different.
Less global, local manufacturing were the norm, Japan and South Korea were the first post-war outsource destination, but...
../they were relatively small AND MORE IMPORTANTLY only served rich economies.
(Many developing economies back then haven't even exited the agrarian economy, let alone consume manufactured goods).
The Indian air force still haven't received the Tejas fighters they ordered in 2009.
Tejas is a low-end 4th gen fighter, the world has moved onto 6th gen fighters.
India's war strategy revolves around the 2.5 front war theory.
A thread on the strategic predicament of India.🧵
India's 2.5 front war means when war comes for India, they will have to fight China and Pakistan simultaneously, while also having to deal with the half (0.5) front of homegrown insurgents.
Recently, the addition of Bangladesh means India will have to deal with a 3.5 front war.
In the near future, China's aircraft carrier battlegroups will rule the Indian ocean.
So by 2030s, India will have to deal with a 4.5 front war(China in the Himalayas and Indian ocean, Pakistan, Bangladesh and insurgency).
How India plans to fight their 2.5, now 3.5 front war?