jakiro
Source: Chairman Rabbit
On September 26, 2024 (before the election), Vivek Ramaswamy conducted a long interview with Lex Fridman, explaining his views on U.S. foreign policy.This Vivek Ramaswamy was born in 1985 and is an Indian native. She was mainly in the business world before. She participated in the Republican primary election in this general election and attracted a lot of media attention when she made her debut.His characteristics are: he is deeply aware of the essence of Trump/MAGAism, is well versed in its underlying logic, is good at eloquence, and is able to express his ideas more clearly.Unlike JD Vance, JD Vance is more modest and down-to-earth, while Vivek Ramaswamy has more elitist attributes.Since withdrawing from the primary election, Vivek Ramaswamy quickly “joined” to Trump’s camp and quickly became the most core team member, actively participated in the election, and made great contributions to Trump’s victory in the process of winning the election.
It should be emphasized:
1) This young man is now one of the most core people around Trump;
2) Be deeply educated on the “true teaching” of Trump’s thoughts and spirit;
3) There are few “non-consensus” parts with other MAGA politicians or opinion leaders (such as Tucker Carlson) who are converging and focusing on their opinions;
4) As a core member, it has an important impact on influencing and shaping Trump’s second term of office, agenda, direction, strategy, strategy, policy, and personnel selection and employment.
This article was released before Trump announced that Musk and Vivek jointly led the Department of Government to be responsible for streamlining federal government agencies, which shows the importance of Vivek.
In the interview on September 26, Vivek clearly explained his core view (or “spirit”) of his foreign policy toward China.I think this is the clearest external statement in the core camp of Trump/MAGA so far.
The following is the core view of Vivek that I summarized, which can basically be equated with the core position of Trump/MAGA political elite.
1. Resolutely not engage in a hot war between China and the United States, and do not escalate the world war:China and the United States must avoid head-on conflicts (“hot wars”) and cannot become a world war because of local conflicts or contradictions.Avoiding the (third) world war is the core demand of MAGA
2. The “Thucydides Trap” should be avoided or can be avoided:The so-called “Thucydides Trap” is the logic proposed by the Westerners that the rise of emerging countries (the “second”) and the existing hegemons (the “boss”) “must have a battle” when power changes.Vivek said that the so-called Thucydides trap can be completely avoided and should not be affected by mainstream relations theory: “I don’t think we must be a ‘declined’ power, nor do I think this will inevitably lead to a major relationship with China.conflict”.
3. US policy toward China (political/diplomatic relations):
1) Adhere to the “one China policy”, believe that it cannot and does not need to deviate from the policies that the United States has followed for the past few decades
2) “strategic ambiguity”: It is wrong to think that the “strategic ambiguity” created in the past is caused by strategic ambiguity, because strong countries do not know what each other is going to do.”Therefore, a “strategic clear” approach should be adopted to clarify the red line and bottom line of both parties, and the granularity of both parties should be completely aligned.
3) Interpretation of red lines/bottom lines on both sides: China’s red line is Taiwan’s independent status, which is absolutely unacceptable; the US’s red line is a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait.This is the consistent statement of both sides over the past few decades, and we must clarify their respective red lines and bottom lines.
4) It is believed that as long as the two sides clarify the bottom line, there will be no conflict:As long as the two sides clarify the boundaries and bottom lines, conflicts can be avoided, “no need to worry about conflict.””Clear” means that each of you knows and believes what the other party says, and feedbacks each other (“receives”)
4. The relationship between the United States and China (economic and trade relations):It is believed that the United States must decouple from China.Here, Vivek is not from the perspective of revitalization of the United States’ local industry, but from the perspective of management of geopolitical conflict between China and the United States.He believes that, first, key materials, essential goods, supply chains, etc. must be decoupled from China; second, sensitive industries such as military industry must be completely decoupled from China; third, they cannot rely on providing the “modern lifestyle” of the United States through China (that is, the United States cannotWithout “China”, you can’t survive).The purpose of reducing dependency/decoupling is to minimize the impact on the US after the conflict occurs.[Note that their logic is not to minimize the possibility of bilateral conflict by strengthening and deepening Sino-US ties, but to stay away from China and reduce the cost after the conflict occurs.This is actually based on their basic judgment, that is, due to various internal and external factors, the United States and China cannot live together politically and economically for a long time.”Since you can’t get together, the farther you are, the better”]
5. US policies towards other countries (“Operational Surrounding”):
1) It is believed that the Sino-Russian alliance must be weakened and the Russian alliance must be integrated into the Russian system.As long as the Sino-Russian alliance is weakened, the possibility of conflict can be reduced (including Eurasia and East Asia).This function can be achieved by ending the Russian-Ukrainian conflict; in addition, the United States should try to reach a “reasonable agreement” with Russia to bring Russia to the United States, so that China believes that Russia will not “automatically” support China by default [MAGA’sThe core idea is: to repair the relationship between the United States and Russia, to weaken China-Russia relations in the Sino-US-Russia triangular relations, and even to the “joint Russia system”.In the past, the logic of the establishment/Washington elite/”deep government” was to resolutely oppose Russia and it was impossible to get to the point of connecting with Russia.Trump/MAGA is not only more realistic, but also recognizes Russia in terms of systems and values, and even secretly admires Russia]
2) It is believed that relations with allies must be strengthened, such as Japan, South Korea, India and the Philippines.It is believed that the United States cannot seek to decouple from China on the one hand, and on the other hand, it seeks to decouple from allies such as Japan, South Korea, India and the Philippines, intensifying economic and trade conflicts with these countries, but is just focused on moving manufacturing back to the United States.You can’t both want and want; you can’t have both fish and bear’s paw.In order to restrict China, the United States needs to strengthen its ties with these countries, which ultimately is a “two-choice-one” issue.It specifically mentioned India, and believed that relations with India should be strengthened and China should weaken its ties with the Middle East through the Indian Ocean/Andaman Sea (such as oil supply)
6. Get rid of the shackles of traditional/orthodox international relations theory thinking.It is believed that the United States needs “leadership” now, “it cannot rely solely on international relations theory to form its views.” It is necessary to break through the constraints of traditional thinking and find new ideas and new ways to break through. Trump is the only one in the United States that can help achieve this.A little politician.[It can be seen that Trump/MAGA does not believe in the orthodox Western theory of international relations (i.e., from Gramham Allison to Millsheimer) and these theories are the influence and shaping of Washington establishment since the Cold War and “deep”The country, the underlying theoretical basis of the military-industrial complex, has led to the United States being constantly involved in and trapped in external conflicts.From JD Vance, Vivek Ramaswamy to Tucker Carlson, the core MAGA opinion leaders are very consistent】
