>>515571319
>Well, we fucked the US and Australia pretty good by snatching more than our fair share of Chinese imports since China's admission to the WTO in 2002. Those guys are entirely tied to China not only in a political way, but in a personal finance level. Take Tereza Cristina and other ruralist politicians in leadership positions, for instance. Blairo Maggi, and others. If our relationship with China goes sour, they're going to lose a lot of money. Their families and associates too.
I actually find that somewhat reassuring. The truly lasting relationships between countries are the ones that are based on economic ties. Ideological ties are superficial, and often fleeing as governments and leaders come and go (this is less of an issue with autocratic regimes, since their leaders tend to rule for longer, but less than ideal, and mostly serve to gather short lived political power). The kind of thing cheerleaders love, to use a term our resident moor loves. Cultural ties are somewhat better, but can and are often ignored whenever convenient. You can't really ignore economic impact though, since it's ever present, and it is to be expected that political actors prioritise it, as long as those actors are actually acting rationally.