re: #746 freetoken

“China” is a category label used among the modern nation state system to identify a collection of some odd (and some are odd) 1.3 billion people. Besides multiple ethnicities there are whole nations (Tibet, inner Mongolia, the tribes in the western steppes, etc.) subsumed under “China”.

The oligarchy in Beijing have been very aware of climate change and the pushing of renewable energy. However, simultaneously they have been very “pro-growth”, in order to feed and house all the various groups in order to keep the ethnic/tribal competition down.

This is absolutely true.

I am not trying to hold up China as some shining example of how to move forward on green energy and I am certainly not trying to say that the current oligarchy are nice guys in any way.

My comments were in response to the trope that the US needs to get the rest of the international community on board that climate is an issue that needs to be addressed.

The point here, and the reality is, that we are at the bottom of the class even after China.

I further do not credit the Chinese government with anything at all like altruism. They can do math as well as any other educated group (as opposed to US Republicans). They know that sooner or later there will have to be a boom in green technology and they are positioning themselves to profit from it, and to see to it that the US has little of that market share.