Yes, Mearsheimer's opinion on China seems something like an idée fixe - I've long wondered why he has this what seems to me a thesis which seems so contrary to his valuable thoughts about Russia and Ukraine, and to a certain extent, israel.

I liked the comparison of this sort of "rational" thinking in international relations to the "rational" homo economicus that supposedly works to advance our societies in neoliberal thinking. A Nobel prize winning economist pointed out the fallacy of this in the early 2000s. but we continue down the same economic and social dead end. .

I watched the Sachs vs Mearsheimer debate. Sachs "won" pretty easily, as Sachs combines high intelligence, real practical experience, historical perspective and perhaps most important a strong moral backbone to his opinions. Mearsheimer has a habit to retreating to some rather tired and simplistic tropes. - I also watched a debate a couple of years ago against pro-war opposition, he managed to lose an audience of intitial support to one that ended strongly against him. He missed many points from his opposition where he could have landed some telling verbal punches.

When does Sachs ever appear on the MSM? The cost of the loss of such understanding to the wider western community is immeasurable.