Carney’s contribution this week in Davos: “Great powers can afford to go it alone. They have the market size, the military capacity, the leverage to dictate terms. Middle powers do not. But when we only negotiate bilaterally with a hegemon, we negotiate from weakness. We accept what is offered. We compete with each other to be the most accommodating. This is not sovereignty. It is the performance of sovereignty while accepting subordination.”
By Prime Minister Carney’s own standards, then, the bilateral “strategic partnership” he cemented with Xi Jinping’s China last week was negotiated from weakness. We accepted what Beijing offered, we’re competing with other middle powers to be the most accommodating, and Carney’s pantomime in Beijing was merely the performance of sovereignty and the acceptance of subordination.
The “narrative” is pretty well embedded now, though, that the American Republicans are reaping MAGA’s whirlwind, and a trusted American ally has abruptly shifted away from the United States to a more reliable partner in China. As I’m not going to stop pointing out, I realize that there’s great satisfaction to be found among liberal Americans in saying to their Trumpist adversaries: Now look what you’ve gone and done. But it’s bullshit.
As Real Story subscribers will understand, the Liberals returned to their customary kowtowing habit of serving as an accomplice in Xi Jinping’s global domination strategy nearly a year and a half before Trump was even re-elected.
