plawolf
Lieutenant General
The best thing about China’s sanctions is that they were announced after those officials had left office, and before they took up new employment.
That meant they were powerless to retaliate against China by abusing the power of their office, nor could they play their trump card of claiming employers are cowed by Chinese threats since no one has hired them yet.
It’s hard to get companies to fire people with overt pressure, since they will worry about boycotts and backlash from customer if they are seen to kowtow to China. However, you can hardly sue someone for not hiring you even if you 100% know the reason they are not doing so is because of Chinese sanctions. Because the company could come up with any number of reasons as to why they want someone else, or doesn’t need the role you wanted to apply for any more.
While American officials, and politicians especially, are world class BSers and shittalkers publicly; Chinese bureaucrats are world beaters at coming up with ways to screw you raw without you even realising anyone was even after you.
I think the big difference is that in the past, China applied its payback in the purist form as it is practiced in Chinese governments since time immemorial, so it was almost impossible for outsiders (or even the victim) to see what was being done to them, as it was intended. For these Trumpist officials, China deliberately let its hand show just enough so that every other American politician can see the personal cost of going out of your way to piss off China as a warning for others to think twice about following their example.
This change in strategy is prompted both by the extremeness of the offences committed by the targeted Americans, but also as a result of growing Chinese power and the open rift between China and America.
Basically, it’s one big message to all American politicians to see that if you cross China’s red lines, China will come after you personally now. So isn’t it better to repair relations and go back to the good old days?
That meant they were powerless to retaliate against China by abusing the power of their office, nor could they play their trump card of claiming employers are cowed by Chinese threats since no one has hired them yet.
It’s hard to get companies to fire people with overt pressure, since they will worry about boycotts and backlash from customer if they are seen to kowtow to China. However, you can hardly sue someone for not hiring you even if you 100% know the reason they are not doing so is because of Chinese sanctions. Because the company could come up with any number of reasons as to why they want someone else, or doesn’t need the role you wanted to apply for any more.
While American officials, and politicians especially, are world class BSers and shittalkers publicly; Chinese bureaucrats are world beaters at coming up with ways to screw you raw without you even realising anyone was even after you.
I think the big difference is that in the past, China applied its payback in the purist form as it is practiced in Chinese governments since time immemorial, so it was almost impossible for outsiders (or even the victim) to see what was being done to them, as it was intended. For these Trumpist officials, China deliberately let its hand show just enough so that every other American politician can see the personal cost of going out of your way to piss off China as a warning for others to think twice about following their example.
This change in strategy is prompted both by the extremeness of the offences committed by the targeted Americans, but also as a result of growing Chinese power and the open rift between China and America.
Basically, it’s one big message to all American politicians to see that if you cross China’s red lines, China will come after you personally now. So isn’t it better to repair relations and go back to the good old days?
