The National Defense Strategy is Not

[davidbfpo]

Citing one line by Kevin23:

China’s mobile payments in 2018 were $12.8 trillion, US equivalent was $50 billion so a comparative 256x differential

Whilst China may not have a street crime problem like many Western nations have, it does have a problem with dishonesty - which is seen in everyday theft of property e.g. electric motorcycle batteries. Let alone the widespread corruption within officialdom; one spin-off is the neglect of industrial health & safety procedures, which can be lethal.

The Chinese economy as Kevin23 pointed out uses mobile payments on a scale not seen in the USA and I expect elsewhere too. Quietly in international crime-fighting forums acknowledges that fraud poses a big problem. Even only for example 0.5% is stolen, that is a lot of money.

[Bill Moore]

Posted by Flagg

I think the threshold of detectability matters.

Do citizens and governments detect the non kinetic jockeying for strategic position? But do they care beyond immediate needs and the next election cycle?

Are we able to shift away from “deter, disrupt, and destroy” and incorporate “attract, build, create”?

It is the job of the government to educate its citizens. The problem we must overcome is the engrained naïve view since the Bush senior administration that China will conform to international norms and become a valuable partner. It wasn't until recently that the West woke to up to the fact that China and the West are ideologically non-compatible, yet economically entangled. It wouldn't matter at all, or at least matter much less, if China displaced the U.S. as a global leader if they were generally ideologically aligned. That is the conclusion the UK came to when the U.S. surpassed them a world power. There was no need to undermine us, or worse go to to war, because we shared mutual interests.

Are we able to shift away from “deter, disrupt, and destroy” and incorporate “attract, build, create”?

'

The leadership to promote this change will not come from the military or the current administration. It will take a leader of the likes of JFK or Reagan to pull the country in this direction.

[flagg]

Posted by Flagg



It is the job of the government to educate its citizens. The problem we must overcome is the engrained naïve view since the Bush senior administration that China will conform to international norms and become a valuable partner. It wasn't until recently that the West woke to up to the fact that China and the West are ideologically non-compatible, yet economically entangled. It wouldn't matter at all, or at least matter much less, if China displaced the U.S. as a global leader if they were generally ideologically aligned. That is the conclusion the UK came to when the U.S. surpassed them a world power. There was no need to undermine us, or worse go to to war, because we shared mutual interests.

'

The leadership to promote this change will not come from the military or the current administration. It will take a leader of the likes of JFK or Reagan to pull the country in this direction.

Agreed on the leadership required.

However, if an effective alternative array is to be built to counter China's it is going to have to require a dramatic increase in trust.

Trust in government, trust in government institutions, trust in private superplatform partners, and trust in coalition/array/network partners.

The last polls I viewed displayed dangerously low levels of trust in government and the narrative on both the wealth divide and data privacy are decidedly anti superplatform in the west.

I'm a pretty optimistic guy, but I don't see us at square 1, I see it as more like square negative 4.

Extremely pessimistic at the macro level.

But at the micro level, a key indicator remains the consistent flow of people moving.

The wealthiest are still flowing consistently from China to US led 5 Eyes.

[flagg]

Further to the superplatform and geodigital strategy narrative I’ve been trying to build, attempts to ban Huawei have made it into the news cycle recently, but my old employer Amazon abandoning China is receiving little attention:

https://pandaily.com/amazon-quits-ch...ling-in-china/

It would appear to be an example of Amazon simply not keeping pace with Chinese competitors’ value proposition as well as user expectations.

What role do multi trillion dollar superplatforms play in national geodigital strategy over the next decade?

Open conflict between superplatform and sovereigns? (US)

Laissez-faire?

Public-private Partnership?

Complete integration? (China)

[flagg]

Citing one line by Kevin23:

Whilst China may not have a street crime problem like many Western nations have, it does have a problem with dishonesty - which is seen in everyday theft of property e.g. electric motorcycle batteries. Let alone the widespread corruption within officialdom; one spin-off is the neglect of industrial health & safety procedures, which can be lethal.

The Chinese economy as Kevin23 pointed out uses mobile payments on a scale not seen in the USA and I expect elsewhere too. Quietly in international crime-fighting forums acknowledges that fraud poses a big problem. Even only for example 0.5% is stolen, that is a lot of money.

Great post David.

I'm constantly torn between the contradictions of digital authoritarianism combined with market access totalitarianism mixed with the Wild West cowboy entrepreneurialism from both legit entrepreneurs and illicit networks.