Xi Trump Summit - A lesson for juvenile delinquents

Sensible adults talking to kids and juvenile delinquents cannot produce workable solutions. While the Trump administration, with its juvenile leaders, continue to treat China like bitter enemies, USA business leaders going to China will not get what they want, despite the gloating about deals here and there.

China will give token deals in order not to cut off ties completely. That is not China capitulating as some people seem to think. China will still buy USA agricultural products to keep USA farmers dependency on China intact. China is throwing straws at drowning entities to keep them alive, not to allow them to disappear completely and lose the leverage totally.

Boeing knows the Chinese market for planes is huge and cannot be dispensed with. The Chinese domestic aviation sector can survive on COMAC planes coming on-line fast. Boeing wants a piece of the action. Nividia needs the China market for its chips, but whether China falls for the same ploy to buy more Nvidia chips is the question. China had already put top priority on Chinese semiconductor firms to entice them to power their foray into chips. Letting Chinese tech to go back to buying Nvidia chips is betraying its own semiconductor players. China is intent on cutting its dependence on foreign chip makers knowing that it is a National Security risk if conflicts arise. The current chip war already revealed the consequences of putting China's National Security under undue pressure.

On the other hand, USA can cut off deals with China firms, but they already have alternative markets to enter into. China has all the cards to play around with, both its huge consumer market and the equally huge market it can get into in the Global South and had already positioned itself for any decoupling.

The USA tried playing the decoupling card and found itself shooting its own foot. Years of sanctioning Chinese firms did not collapse those Chinese firms like Huawei, but is instead making them more resilient, while USA firms being targeted are finding the going unsustainable. Companies like Boeing, Nvidia and a host of USA technology firms still wants to go into China to make money. The visit of Trump to China clearly shows that the new mantra is co-operation and allowing both sides to grow instead of throwing brickbats and bombs at each other.

But the last word is still for China to beware of USA treachery. The USA can never ever be trusted to honor its obligations. That is clearly shown over the last couple of decades.


Anonymous