Daily Roundup 3/3/2021
Change of Strategy
CHINA
The chessboard is almost ready
After a substantial report released on Monday on the future American strategy for the trade war with China, it seems that the doubt of a possible change of direction is no more. This together with the news, this week, of the birth of a new joint venture between Canada and the United States that aims at producing some rare earths in a more sustainable way and the creation of a fund to make the U.S. strategically independent from Chinese supply lines is indicative of a serious turnaround.
In spite of any possible new ally, the central problem remains the growing Chinese deterrence capacity and the US overextension on too many fronts as well as the refusal of the majority of the country to participate further in wars towards which they feel no "affinity".
On the positive side, especially after the coronavirus, the world now has several reasons to fear and distance itself from Beijing's sphere of power.
One of the latest examples is the partial opening of a long-time ally of the Dragon like Cambodia to the United States, which decided to unilaterally cancel an exercise with China because it "wants to cut military spending as a result of the pandemic".
It is still too early to read too much into this statement but it is certainly of some relevance given the trend in recent years of many countries on the Indochinese peninsula to integrate its defense more and more with that of the Dragon.