The Western ruling class considers China's technological development to be a threat because it undermines a core tenet of the imperial arrangement. Here's how it works.

 https://x.com/jasonhickel/status/1883808333036924998

Jason Hickel

@jasonhickel

The Western ruling class considers China's technological development to be a threat because it undermines a core tenet of the imperial arrangement. Here's how it works. The states and firms of the imperial core actively seek to prevent sovereign technological development in the global South, while establishing monopoly control over necessary technologies (capital goods, medicines, computers, etc, etc). This forces the South into a position of dependency, such that they are compelled to export large quantities of (cheapened) industrial and agricultural goods to the core in order to pay for necessary imports. The result is a massive net flow of material wealth from periphery to core that sustains high levels of material consumption in places like the US and Europe, overwhelmingly to the benefit of their ruling classes. And the core's technology firms enjoy monopoly profits. But China's technological development is beginning to break Western monopolies, and may give developing countries alternative suppliers for necessary goods at more affordable prices. This poses a fundamental challenge to the imperial arrangement, and the net flow of goods - and profits - that the core enjoys. The core states will not let this happen easily. All the US saber-rattling against China's development is *not* because China poses a military threat to the territorial United States (it does not), but because it poses a threat to imperial capital.

Last edited8:24 PM · Jan 27, 2025

·

123.8K

Views

https://x.com/jasonhickel/status/1883808333036924998