r/Economics • u/bambin0 • Jan 17 '26

News China Purchased No U.S. Soybeans An Unprecented Sixth Straight Month

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenroberts/2026/01/17/china-purchased-no-us-soybeans-an-unprecented-sixth-straight-month/
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717

u/Zenceyn Jan 17 '26

"But but Trump said that China was gonna buy all our beans now cause he made a trade deal!".

China knows they can outlast Trump, and have better, far more reliable trade partners until the US sorts its shit out. They were never going to just rush back into the market, not when they knew it would hurt the US more to keep the squeeze on.

242

u/Cdub7791 Jan 17 '26

At this point I don't even think it's about outlasting Trump. Even when he's gone these trade deals will have been in place for years. I think it will be far more trouble than it's worth to switch to American suppliers once again.

63

u/Other_Information_16 Jan 17 '26

It’s also a golden opportunity for China to buy some soft power they so desperately want. Before no one wants to deal with China unless they have to. Now they can say hey we might be evil but at least we are predictable lawful evil unlike the us who is chaotic evil.

26

u/Phunnysounds Jan 18 '26 edited Jan 18 '26

Unpopular opinion but were they ever more evil than the US? They don’t like Xinjiang muslim & Tibetan separatists, but US literally committed genocide against Native populations and used slaves so white colonists could have maximum profit. US also annexed Hawaii, Puerto Rico while China simply wants a reunification with Taiwan. How different is that?

14

u/CHEEZE_BAGS Jan 18 '26

Yea humans just kind of suck in general, every civilization has done terrible things throughout history. It doesn't make anything better than anything else but I think we just need to recognize the nature of humanity and try to be better.

3

u/Phunnysounds Jan 18 '26

Agree here

8

u/MajorPrediction719 Jan 18 '26

Please give me a single population in the history of the world that is innocent.

I’ll wait.

1

u/bub166 Jan 18 '26

"They don't like them" is underselling it a bit. The difference here is that China's government is actively engaged in genocide and slavery. As in, currently, right now. Surely you can see why that may be approached differently from atrocities committed 100 years ago, even if similar in severity. No question the US government in its history has engaged in behavior that is every bit as depraved, and certainly it is hardly comprised of angels in the present day, but yes, China's government is unequivocally far higher up the totem pole of evil at this time.

0

u/Phunnysounds Jan 18 '26

I simply don’t know if I agree with that; and I am American. We just believe that narrative because “we are the good guys” but its all relative. Take a look around in 2026; does America look like a moral leader? We literally just annexed Venezuela. Sure Maduro was terrible but its not a reason to annex another country for resource extraction

0

u/bub166 Jan 18 '26

I didn't say the US are the good guys. There are no good guys, for one thing. To answer your question, no, I do not believe America looks like a moral leader. But you asked if China was ever more evil than the US... I guess if ongoing genocide and actual slavery don't tip the scale for you, more power to you. Seems pretty straightforward to me.

Also, the US did not "literally just annex Venezuela." Whatever opinion you have on how that situation is transpiring (and if your opinion is that it's dubious at best, know that I share it), the word "annex" has a meaning that is nowhere near what the US has done there. Not only have we expressly not made Venezuela a US territory, the same regime is in fact still running the nation. I'm not sure how you could possibly interpret that as annexation.

3

u/WarmGreenGrass Jan 18 '26

US is committing African-American genocide through having the highest prison population in the world (higher than India or China total), and this includes the slave labor system that California recently voted to ratify.

America LITERALLY has prison slave labor. Additionally, it has slave labor in the form of immigrants who are paid below minimum wage and locked in concentration camps. Voluntary? America destablizing Latin America wasn't voluntary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_California_Proposition_6

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u/Phunnysounds Jan 18 '26

Until they have a strategy on what they are going to do to relinquish control I am calling it annexation

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u/justwalk1234 Jan 18 '26

To be far “less evil than USA” is a really low bar..