| Leadified said: China is definitely the main economic adversary to the US, since Russia's economy is only the size of Australia's. But I would lump China and Russia together because while they're not technically allies, both powers have been working together against the US. Russian or Chinese actions are often followed upon by each other since they are much stronger together than separate. China has the money, Russia has the connections. As you said with Trump, he has created an opening for his rivals to swoop in and I'm sure they will do everything in their power so Trump's successor will be helpless to stop them. |
Russia is, at least, way more keen in directly challenging the US. China is more reserved, but it is quickly challenging the US economic hegemony. Russia is in a relative economic crisis. But yes, they seem to be on the same page and share a common "enemy", so they will pretty much act together from now on. China also is not only in a good economic situation, but they also have their most powerful leader in decades. Jinping is clearly intending to change China's status as local power to a global superpower. Even in Latin America, it's incredible how much China is investing. And I'm really not complaining, for most countries here it is great to diversify economic relations. The US and the EU are always trying to protect their own agriculture while demanding lower taxes for their own products. I think Latin countries will be able to negotiate better terms with China. The US always treated the region as an afterthought and focused on its OTAN friends, so maybe it's time for the emergent countries to negotiate with each other instead of dealing with the old geopolitics.
I got to say that people in the US should be more cautious about Trump. It's clear now that Putin employed a lot of effort and money in rigging the US elections to make Trump win. He risked a diplomatic crisis when doing so. The only remaining question is what was Trump's role on this mess. Is he just an useful idiot, so Putin wanted him to win so he would take the US in bad directions and weaken its global influence? Or is he somewhat connected to the Russians, which has some serious implications? I also believe that Trump could actually be innocent, but Putin manipulated the situation to make it look otherwise. The thing here is that Trump is not that brilliant and has zero experience with politics (being a businessman is a whole different thing), while Putin is an extremely capable politician and manipulator. I think people fail to realize how dangerous Putin can be when you're his enemy.
