Biden told Xi after Putin meeting: Be careful, your economy depends on Western investment

Sam BOT@lemmy.world to World News@lemmy.world – 261 points –
Biden warned China's Xi on West's investment after Putin meeting
reuters.com

U.S. President Joe Biden told Chinese President Xi Jinping following his meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin to "be careful" because Beijing relies on Western investment.

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Wouldn't this be more of a double implication though? Without China to manufacture goods, the West is out of goods, but without the West to purchase said goods, China just gets stuck with a huge amount of goods it can only sell at a discount to other nations, thereby reducing their profit margins. Surely if other places were willing to pay just as much as the West for goods, they would be sold there as well, to not have all eggs in the same basket.

Sort of like what I read on a lunch place - "Eat here, or we both starve".

Not trying to start a pro-/anti-anything discussion, genuinely curious about the mechanics at play here, global economics, game theory and all that.

Absolutely! Doesn't change the fact that Biden's warning is toothless bluster. If he actually tried to end US investment in China it would collapse the world economy. It's a M.A.D. world

That's exactly his point though. It's more a reminder, less a threat. It actually sort of touched on it in the article, China's relationship to Putin vs the West.

It's sort of going "we see you eyeing off Taiwan, and chumming up to Russia... Please remember that there IS in fact a red line. We've told you where it is and if you cross it, you'll likely destroy us both. Please don't go thinking that you'll be fine, because your economy relies heavily on ours, the same as ours does yours. "