pull down to refresh
23 sats \ 40 replies \ @OgFOMK 30 Oct \ parent \ on: Do People Actually Believe the Election Result will Result in Positive Change based
Maybe New Zealand is tired of the 5 eyes money and they are warming up to their neighbor in the Pacific. New Zealand has been quiet as far as we are seeing. No Agenda has a large Australian audience but not New Zealand.
My guess is that New Zealand is getting tired of the hegemony and maybe wants to join South Africa and Brazil in Brics.
New Zealand is hugely dependent upon China for both getting the best prices for its commodity exports and for the supply of manufactured imports at the best price.
NZ is one of the few developed economies to have a fairly balanced trade with China- almost all other western countries operate a trade deficit with China.
NZ has the exports China wants (fish, wool, timber, meat, and some education and tourism) and NZ needs the manufactured goods China excels in producing at low cost.
Yet almost all countries globally are now more reliant upon China for the well being of their economies than the US- simply because China buys commodities and converts them into manufactured goods more efficiently.
Despite NZ being militarily and monetarily very much a tribute state to the US since WW2- 80% of our banking sector is majority owned by US shareholders- we pay a higher ratio of our GDP to US bank shareholders than any other OECD nation, the US has always refused to grant us any free trade agreement.
New Zealand signed the first free trade agreement between an OECD nation and China in the early 2000s. That has delivered huge economic benefits- nothing like it has been offered by the US...Trump closed down the Asia Pacific trade deal that was continued without US involvement.
reply
So maybe NZ will jump on the Brics wagon. It makes sense.
reply
It will be a divisive process as a majority of NZs law and culture and political heritage is as a western imperial tribute state. There are growing Chinese links but the transition is unlikely to be as easy and smooth as the transition from British Empire to US hegemony was.
NZ with its commodity based exports is best trading with countries with a need for those commodities and the ability to provide manufactured goods at a good price.
This difficulty of transition from a US empire to Chinese dominance with some variations in character can probably be applied to many other countries like Australia, Canada, the EU, S.Korea and Japan.
It is time of vulnerability and uncertainty for not just the US, but also its historical allies.
reply
NZ is already part of the US intelligence apparatus, all the 5 eyes countries are.
That was step 1.
Brexit was step 2.
Step 3 is just a formality/disclosure at this point. China will be used to justify the 5-eyes countries becoming US protectorates in the next few years. Book it.
reply
Very unlikely NZ would accept that.
Especially if Trump or similar leadership holds power in the US.
Brexit had little effect on NZ except reviving interest from Britain in redeveloping traditional trade ties and freeing Britain from some EU constraints.
The US is abandoning its traditional allies as it displays more insular and isolationist tendencies.
The US is increasingly seen as an unreliable 'protector' and Trump re-election would substantially accelerate that decline in relationships.
China already offers NZ and many other western economies far more value added than the US does.
reply
To me the real interesting part is that all of these places are self sufficient but the media has done is job of creating scarcity.
All the resources we have are gifts from God. Mother Earth is a gift. She is the place we live on and she is a very special place for humans.
Each continent, Island and land mass is meant to change with time. Trade and resource movement is how we work out our desires with each other.
reply
Imperialism uses the threat of force to seize more than free trade would deliver to the imperialist.
This is as intrinsic to human nature and the age old competition between tribes as our DNA.
reply
It's already the fact on the ground, there's no debating it. NZ isn't a self-sufficient country and thus depends on the US for intelligence and defense matters... Australia rolling out US nuclear boats made it official, the Pacific is consolidating.
All that's remaining is the optics.
US is abandoning its traditional allies
You clearly have no idea wtf is going on, wake up its WW3
reply
If Trump is elected he has declared he will end the war and Ukraine and that will mean doing a deal with Putin...rewarding Chinese backed military aggression. Taiwan would be next.
Yes its WW3 and Chinese client state proxies are invading western allies and US allies feel abandoned by an America that is internally divided and increasingly isolated and dysfunctional.
reply
Do you have any takes you didn't copy and paste out of a main stream news headline?