Final Word from Thursday, September 23, 2021

By the time Barack Obama pivoted to Asia, China was well on its way to having the largest navy in the world. By the time Donald Trump ordered a review of the manufacturing and defense-industrial base of the U.S. and of the resilience of its supply chain, China already represented a "significant and growing risk." By the time Joe Biden said that the U.S. was turning its focus to the Indo-Pacific and other consequential regions along with its allies and partners, he had already alienated many of those allies and partners by withdrawing hastily from Afghanistan and concluding a hush-hush nuclear-submarine deal with the UK and Australia. By the time Biden agreed with Emmanuel Macron that "the [submarine] situation would have benefited from open consultations among allies on matters of strategic interest to France and our European partners," Australia was already on China's shit list. By the time Australia gets any of those submarines in a decade or two, China might not need to care. [ Czech Republic United States of America European Union EU US shitlist U.K. AUKUS president France ]