A report for the Pentagon was released by Arlington, Virginia-based Govini, which in 2019 received a five-year, $400 million contract from the Pentagon to provide data, analysis and information on Department of Defense spending, supply chain and acquisitions.
The report also states that dependence on the Chinese supply chain is present on every major weapons platform, including US aircraft carriers.
It is separately noted that the current dependence on China cannot be resolved even in a decade. Because a “supply chain” at this scale is an entire economy, as it is a network of many firms that buy and sell from each other.
It certainly shows that US military would grind to a halt very quickly if US did go to war with China. I wouldn't underestimate the sheer stupidity of the political class in US though. These people are completely divorced from material reality.
Lmfao how does the military with the most bloated budget in the history of the planet not have base up control of their supply chain? Not only do they not, they rely on their biggest rival who they constantly sabre rattle at for basic components?
I know capitalists can only plan one quarter ahead and will readily sell you the rope to hang them with but it still manages to surprise me a little
Jesus Christ I knew they had privatized everything they could but I didn't realize they don't even own the gunpowder production. Is there anything they actually control or is everything contracted out to the lowest bidder?
I only have time to read this, not deliver line by line dunking, but I encourage comrades to read this article critically as it is a masterclass in neoliberal interests making a correct critique shared by the left (hollowing out domestic production and overreliance on Chinese suppliers has consequences) but wedded to entirely the wrong takeaway and diagnosis. Truly sublime
Somewhere in Grundrisse, Marx considers nations conquering others. He points out that pillaging a country consists in taking control of the components of their material production, and that the process of pillaging looks very different wether you're considering conquering a rural economy (occupying land, taking hold of slaves...) or a nation of rentiers.
We won't be alive to see it, but I bet future historians will consider this current era as the conquest of the US empire
I hate when know-nothings think that any electronic device with a Chinese made component is a threat. They literally think it'll started beeping and glowing red then burst in to flames like a damn simpsons sight gag.
I think in this case it’s less china spying on you through your asic chip, and more a failure of American industry and wartime manufacturing capacity.
Let’s say we have the great American-Chinese war, it’s not unreasonable to assume the US will lose some material right? Well that’s a big problem when your replacement parts come from your main adversary. Who has, coincidentally, by manufacturing all your peacetime supplies built all the infrastructure and expertise to build their own wartime supplies.
This is it, exactly. As long as the war lasts longer than a few months and the US decides not to push the button, China wins by default. As a comrade, this excites me, but as a resident in the heart of the empire it makes me very nervous
Nah, keep at it Xi, every time the US outsources another thing to china it is neutering US industrial might and giving more money and control to Beijing.
That top graph is strange. They couldn't have ordered the number of Chinese suppliers in any sensible way? And only 5 of those categories of suppliers have more than 1 corresponding component category?
I agree the chart is kinda shitty... I mean that's just what you get tho when you're the Pentagon paying some contractors $400 million. American excellence