There’s a new “Valley of the Clueless,” which runs along Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. Showing what the people of that valley believe, yesterday Daleep Singh, Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics, spoke at the Brookings Institution, and claimed to think:
That “the United States and its partners” are ready to use sanctions and export controls to “prevent China-Russia trade that threatens their security.” They believe this because China’s trade with Europe and America combined is far larger in dollar terms than its trade with Russia. Of course, China’s trade with the 10 ASEAN nations is larger, and growing, than its trade with Europe or America, which are falling. Include all of South Asia, and China’s trade is much larger; then there’s Africa…;
That the United States has other sanctions ready, “given Moscow’s moves to shift its economy to war footing”—although President Putin’s cabinet ministers have just been clearly and emphatically instructed to shift military industries, in part, to civilian production and infrastructure development, and streamline Russia’s military budget;
That Russia is “utterly dependent on China”;
