Japan's upcoming new Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, is also rethinking the US$550 billion investments extracted through arm twisting by Trump on Shigeru Ishiba, the resigning Japanese PM during tariff negotiations.
South Korea is also not committed to invest US$350 billion in the USA, also arm twisted by Trump during tariff negotiations. Trump even wants South Korea to pay that investment upfront, acting like a mafia lord. After the ICE raid and arrest of Hyundai workers in the USA, South Korea is standing up to Trump in the face of the South Korean worker's indignant protests.
Now, all that gloating by Trump about investments by Japan and South Korea is like a puff of hot air, going, going and soon gone. Trump is really making USA Great Again, with even allies now distancing themselves from his childish behavior. Asians are basically telling Trump that enough is enough.
Anonymous
Trump initiated a trade war against China during his first term that is still unravelling. He launched another tariff war against China and the rest of the world during this second term, and the consequences are just beginning to be realized as to who it is hurting more. What has Trump actually managed to achieve so far? Make America Greater Again does not seem to be working? On the contrary, it is making China even greater.
ReplyDeleteFor a start, why is Scott Bessent crying aloud about China holding USA farmers hostage by not buying their soya beans and corn. What about the USA Government refusing to let USA consumers buy Chinese EVs and erecting high tariffs on other Chinese goods? Are the two methods of carrying out a trade war not identical? What constitutes a trade war if one side just had to concede on every front without retaliating? That is nothing like a trade war. That is capitulation to high-handed bullying. Who started the trade war in the first place? The one that started it should not be crying foul, right?
The USA assumed that China is just like Germany and Japan that it could just dictate to and put them under its thumb to prevent them from rising in the past. China already said that it is ready for any war with the USA and the USA can ignore that warning at its own risk.
China had put its plan to take on the USA on every front probably decades earlier, while the USA was basking in its arrogance and overconfidence that China can never rise to compete against it. The pushing of Russia towards China was the real blessing in disguise, with the two countries complementing each other perfectly in terms of energy supply in return for economic support.
China set its sights on overcoming the prospect of blockades by building the BRI to enable it to overcome those chokepoints, namely the Straits of Malacca, Suez Canal and Panama Canal. Oil from Russia now comes through pipelines and also by train from Iran. Trade with Central Asia comes through the BRI that also extends to Europe. China had been building up its renewable energy base of dams, wind turbines, solar energy and nuclear power plants, while the USA is intent on sticking to the fossil fuel route. That diversification by China takes care of one important National Security Risk for China.
China leveraged on the trade war initiated by Trump during his first term by migrating its food supplies from USA to Brazil, Argentina and Russia. It served two purposes - retaliation against the USA and solving its National Security Risk in food requirements. In fact, there is a third purpose which is de-dollarization. Having said that, China had also been busy with its own food production in house with desert reclamation projects and experiments in saltwater rice that has reaped success. Do we know that China is now the biggest producer of seafood in the world?
Apart from energy and food, China also controls important resources that it set out to acquire like rare earth, essential metals, bauxite and others needed for its industries together with the building of all the processing and refining logistics. China is now self-sufficient in many areas and does not have to rely on others, particularly unfriendly ones.
Nobel Peace Prize 2025 awarded to Venezuelan opposition political leader Maria Corina Machado.
ReplyDeleteUnderstand there is fury from the White House over the award not given to Trump, LOL.
DeleteTrump is going to take over the Nobel Prize Committee.
ReplyDelete