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.
For 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.
Anonymous
For 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.
Anonymous
7 comments:
Trump is now throwing tantrums, claiming that his meeting with Xi scheduled within the next two weeks is off, in the face of further rare earth sanctions by China. Is this again own-self talking to own-self. as I am clueless without the Chinese side talking about the coming meeting or confirming it.
Xi must be quietly calling it a blessing in disguise if the meeting had indeed been scheduled and now cancelled. Trump had been hoping to pressure China to sell more rare earth magnets to the USA and also to coerce China to help USA farmers by buying more soya beans and corn. Now Xi does not even have to worry about having to talk about it. For a moment, I am beginning to wonder if China is taking a leaf from the USA behavior before any meeting by showing the USA who has the upper hand with further sanctions on rare earth materials before the touted meeting. This clearly shows how desperate the USA is without rare earth magnets for building more weapons to target China in the coming war.
Trump is going to increase another 100% tariffs on Chinese goods. On the one hand Trump is worried about Chinese goods not moving fast enough to the USA and now wanting to increase tariffs further to put a stop to Chinese products. Chinese manufacturers must be shaking in their pants hearing about the 100% tariffs coming. But suffice to say, they have already built new bridges with other countries for their exports and are not waiting for Trump to do the necessary. As I already said many a time before, Trump can increase his tariffs on China to 1,000% and it is not going to move the needle. That is just academic, knowing that the 30% tariff now existing is already killing retailers and punishing USA consumers with the drop in Chinese imports. Trump is realistically just flogging a tariff dead horse.
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China should just stop exporting rare earths to US. Better still totally decouple from them. Now will be a good time in the run up to their Christmas shopping. Guess what Santa brought for all the rednecks and hillbillies? A big fat zilch.😁
It is so gratifying seeing Trump dismantling the USA piece by piece.
USA's predicament started when Trump initiated his trade war against China in 2018. Trump did not realize he has little substance to back up his trade war - no manufacturing on hand to provide substitutes from China, does not understand the danger of not having control of raw materials before starting a trade war, destroying bridges instead of building them and letting China corner markets and resources. The arrogance of the USA leaders realistically destroyed the country.
As the saying goes, people in glass houses should not throw stones. Trump is throwing stones everywhere
Oh yes, China is decoupling from the USA, even if the USA does not want it to happen. Now the realization in Washington is that the USA needs China more than the other way round.
The USA does not have to push China away. China is walking away by itself.
We can talk and discuss until the cows come home, but for USA farmers, the Chinese soya bean market is gone, forever. It is not going to come back to the USA, as China is getting cheaper soya beans from Brazil and Argentina.
China is saying that where it is cooler, that is where we will sit.
The levy on Chinese built ships calling at USA ports is to start on October 14th. China's retaliation has been immediate, with similar levies on ships owned or operated by USA companies calling at Chinese ports starting from the same date. Has Trump thought seriously about his plan or just throwing tantrums once again without thinking what lies ahead?
'I like it when the plan comes together' is a quote by Hannibal Smith, the leader of the TV series The A-team, played by George Peppard. Trump has a plan and China waited for him to put it up before retaliating. So far, so good. China has not gone far enough yet with Boeing planes taking a hit landing at Chinese airports. That will be more fun.
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