Scott Siskind complains about his lack of knowledge of the internal workings of the Communist Party of China. But, of course, this is a ridiculous complaint. We actually know far, far more about the mechanics of the workings of the Chinese Communist Party than about the very simple question of why American foreign policy in regards to China took a 180 from 2016 to 2019. The stupid attribute this to Trump, but anyone with more than two brain cells understands Trump inspired reflexive opposition among the over 110 IQ class, rather than reflexive support, and this shift in China policy translating into broad support among the media class would be the sole instance of a Trumpian policy stance becoming mainstream -meaning this theory has no explanatory power at all. Trumpian stances on Iran and Israel did not become bipartisan and media consensus except, ironically enough, under Biden, and Trump’s North Korea policy was first seen by the MSM as far too hawkish, then instantly as far too dovish. And yet, it was precisely during the 2018 trade war when American media switched from implicitly praising 习 as an anti-Trumpist to treating him as Enemy Number Two (enemy number one, of course, being Putin). Why? Nobody cares. And nobody knows. Americans and their overseas lackeys think in slogans and talk in bullets.
Note the 2016-17 China approval “bump” in the U.S.; a more logical conseqence of Trump and Trumpism, as well as the giant 2018 spike -pre-HK, pre-COVID, pre-”wolf warrior” diplomacy.
As Boldmug says, power never discusses itself. The world isn’t dying, the world is being killed. And these killers have names and addresses. Somebody was making American China policy in 2016, 17, 18, 19, and 20, and in a fairly monarchical manner. Who was it? And why did they make the decisions they did?
It's not that much of a mystery. It really boils down to two emergent phenomenon that crashed against each other in 2017: Wokefication of American elites and chattering classes+start of Uighur concentration camps. Woke theology places Muslims among the highest pedestal (but not the highest, that's reserved for trannies and/or fags). Ongoing Great Awokening infected entire swaths of American academia, journalism, punditry, and FP chattering class (all of them add up to the Super Blob). When they saw one of their favorite totems get disrespected and humiliated totally, they lashed out in rage and tears. Geopolitics always flow downstream from whatever fanatical obsessions, paranoia, or neuroses that preoccupy the Super Blob. Hence, almost complete breakdown in Sino-US relations and launch of new Cold War.