Counterpoint: Wouldn’t it be more profitable to turn Iran into Libya/Syria, then install an Israeli-backed dictator capable of ruling the country with an iron fist?
Has that ever worked? China has not liberalized even after trade with the West made it rich, and neither had Russia (before the sanctions related to the war in Ukraine.
Yes the lives of the Chinese people are now infinitely better than in the past. Unless you want to force everyone to adopt Neoiberalism as their ideology and else they should rot on the streets?
The moral calculus favors China’s rise as long as China doesn’t start any major wars, but the danger of China invading Taiwan is so great that I would have favored a policy of economic containment in order to reduce China’s capability to wage war even if it also reduced China’s economic growth.
Even if you disagree, do you acknowledge that, contrary to the claim in the OP, middle-class prosperity has not led to middle-class self-determination in China?
Yes self-determination in China has increased a lot with the economic prosperity. While the US is declining economically and sees massive oppression, exploitation and now even ICE kidnappings to keep their populace in check. I think your only moral calculus is on how to keep the US empire at the top of the world.
Has that ever worked?
Sanctions sure as hell don’t, unless by “work” you mean hurt innocent people.
I don’t understand. How else would we provoke a regime change war? What about all those jobs tied to the military industrial complex?
