by Col (Ret) John Mills at ColonelRETJohn Substack
Just when it looked like China was on a worldwide roll, the deep economic underpinnings of the Chinese economy suddenly seemed very shaky. Trade and foreign investment have not returned since the end of COVID. Domestic prices have fallen across the board. China’s commercial and residential construction market is pervasively overbuilt to a dangerous level, leaving ghost towns and now an expanding crisis, as Evergrande, the real estate behemoth in China, files for bankruptcy.
President Xi seems to be in a leadership crisis at home because of the sudden economic downturn. New York City University Professor Xia Ming said, “The grievances of the Chinese people are significant right now.” The White Paper Uprising of last fall has now been reprised as Chinese citizens are angry over the Chinese Communist Party’s decision to allow populated areas to flood to save some parts of the capitol city of Beijing. The United States is experiencing its own disasters in Maui, but China seems to be significantly rattled with economic, environmental, and civil upheaval. All this right before the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) Conference in South Africa, where China and Russia attempted to create a counter-alliance to the G-7.
Effects on Energy Purchases from the Middle East
China was negotiating peace between Iran and Saudi Arabia only a few months ago. Several Middle East countries were conducting a dalliance with conducting energy sales to China in Yuan, a potential vote of no confidence in the U.S. Dollar as the world reserve currency. With inconsistent and sometimes indifferent attention from the Biden Administration and a solid Saudi economy, Mohammed bin Salman sought a middle pathway between a partisan alliance with either China or the United States. This seemed to be working for a while.
The three things China needed in its struggle for world dominance over the American-led system are energy,…
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