Trump: Prepares for war of aggression, talks aggressively of containing China, inherits island chain forward operations encirclement from decades of American policy of encircling and hemming in China with bases and partnerships including missile deployments and forward bombers and radar. Arms separatists on Taiwan, violates the basis of diplomatic relations, is president of incredibly war-mongering empire with long history of aggression including wars against three neighbors (Vietnam, Laos, Korea) in the past 75 years. Has think tanks openly plan wars of aggression against China and talk of how long they'll have military supremacy against them in a war.

Xi: Sees this stuff happening and prepares for purely DEFENSIVE war against this incredible and long-telegraphed aggression which he and previous administrations have done everything in their power to delay including taking economic hits and keeping their heads bowed to keep trade up between the powers. Talk is very diplomatic in tone, attempts to resolve tensions diplomatically, encourages trade and interconnectedness and globalization to decrease chances of conflict, talks of win-win cooperation, has exactly one foreign military base and its a tiny one in Africa next to a much larger US one.

Bourgeois propagandists: These are exactly the same, this is all coming down to aggression from BOTH sides (but really those sneaky Chinese who are forcing us to do this).

"Trump and Xi"

The aggression is purely one-sided.

isn't there someone you forgot to ask?

Gotta say it's a clever title. Xi is preparing for war as much as Trump if not more. But the cleverness is in the way that preparedness is made synonymous with aggression.

Nice essay. China still builds all our shit, Bloomberg. What matters more in the real world: the idea to build shit, or being able to actually build that shit?

The former means a whole lot on a spreadsheet, and not a lot anywhere else.

Pretty sure there's somebody who wants that war. How will we ever find out who, though? If only one party has a consistent history of aggressive rhetoric, that would make this so much easier.

Speak for yourself, Bloomberg. I would very much enjoy China spanking our naughty little butts in a trade war.

BOFF SIGHS! BOFF SIGHS! IT BOFF! NEIVER WASHYTON OR BAYJING!

Assuming for a second that I believe the contents of this article: Gee. I wonder why they are. I wonder who is responsible?! Fuck it's all so nebulous!

And, as always, it is the poor and lower class who will suffer. Whether literally in an actual conflict/proxy war, or crushed under an economic battle of tariffs and taxes.

WHERE WILL THAT WAR TAKE PLACE BLOOMBERG? WHERE WILL THAT WAR TAKE PLACE?

: “But poors! Doncha wanna be real life badasses?! Come on kid, it’s like you’ll be in those animes and videos gaming! You can be just like my little Pokeyman! Come on, poor! I choose YOU! (Besides, I’m not hiring for anything else so it’s not like you have a choice!)”

The "stalled development" picture is great... you just have to take their word that it's stalled and not just night time.