r/neoliberal • u/Saltedline Hu Shih • Dec 03 '24

Trump vows to block Nippon Steel's planned purchase of US Steel News (Asia)

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20241203/p2g/00m/0bu/020000c

371 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

u/GrandePersonalidade nem fala português Dec 03 '24

The stench of decline is simply unbearable and impossible to ignore

5

u/[deleted] Dec 03 '24

The more I read the diplomat or Atlantic or whatever publications with a history of discourse on foreign policy, this is the first time I feel that they have been disconnected with the reality. Sure you can blame allies (if you can call allies allies), but when ASEAN countries, which have a history of maintaining a fine balance between China and US, starts tilting towards China then you have a problem. And it is not due to Israel Gaza War not the only reason as diplomat or others would have you believe. At the height of Yom Kippur War, most of the Islamic SEA countries were neutral. It is the disillusionment with US policies in the region. In 5 years, reality would probably hit them. But it definitely is not hitting them now.

2

u/GrandePersonalidade nem fala português Dec 03 '24

And this is before Trump even hits office, and he is the type of figure that drives allies away on a very personal level. His manners are already insufferable for Westerners, but for Asia, they'll make for an even easier sell of China as being the adult in the room.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 03 '24 edited Dec 03 '24

With Trump obviously it is more in the appearance. But Biden was rarely thought as the reliable partner (it is different topic that whether it will better or worse than Trump). The IPEF debacle with Japan is a case in point. The things he did have reduced the lifespan of Quad.

When Trump left office and Biden was coming in., US was still favoured higher than China and in fact increased owing to China's many border transgressions with India. Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia in SCS etc. But disappointment on Biden has been paramount and the disagreement became distrust as the countries and US did not share the same perspective on the Ukraine war. Blocking the G20 summit goals in 2022 in Indonesia did not go down well. Marcos took Philippines towards US but the defence partnership he was looking for did not materialise (for one US has been reluctant to help Philippines beyond a certain point). Increasingly that meant PH buying missile systems from India. But it got weirder when certain signals were sent about a new alliance that would replace Quad but with Philippines instead of India (very suspiciously after the missile deal). AUKUS definitely did not go well with SEA countries and even Japan and Korea.

1

u/thercio27 MERCOSUR Dec 03 '24

By AUKUS not going well do you mean SEA disliking the alliance itself or the individual countries?

2

u/[deleted] Dec 03 '24 edited Dec 03 '24

SEA sees it as destabilizing alliance. It concentrates the potential nuke submarine fleet too close to their EEZs. They fear in a full blown out war, even if they are not involved, you could have one of the country launching missiles from their SSBN using their territorial waters. Australia took care some of the anxiety by signing an agreement with Indonesia.

AUKUS also sent the wrong signals. The French were suddenly kicked out by the Australians as they withdrew from the Barracuda program. To include US and UK (nobody gets why UK is there but okay). Not that the Australian Navy is unimportant but it is JSDF navy, South Korean Navy and Indian Navy who are doing the deterrence work. Only Indian Navy operates two SSBNs. While the other two would definitely appreciate one however AUKUS has not included them despite interest from their side.

1

u/Nerf_France Ben Bernanke Dec 03 '24

Blocking the G20 summit goals in 2022 in Indonesia did not go down well.

What happened there? Couldn't find much about it online.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '24

The declaration passed through but Indonesia and most of Asean and developing countries wanted the talks on debt restructuring which was necessary after the COVID crisis. Instead Ukraine Russia war was forced upon the discussion. Not that the war wasn't discussed. Indonesia retrieved the situation by focusing on getting a declaration on Ukraine Russia war alignment with everyone and the other pressing issues were pretty much kinda dropped.