Trade War with China

Bob Smith said:

The USMCA got sent to the Mexican senate today for ratification, too.

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He's throwing away so much goodwill around the world, in 10 years, there might even be a Chinese military base in Baja California.

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I really like this guy. I would not be completely shocked if he finished in 2024, disappeared several years later, then appeared in Russia on Russian TV speaking perfect Russian about how his many years of training with the KGB helped him completely manipulate and circumvent America's checks and balances system while evading FBI and CIA under the guise of an angry imbecile in order to carry out his objectives. He'd discuss how he communicated with the Kremlin in code; bragadocious, yuge, bigly, covfefe, were all code words for something! He'd tell everyone about how Robert Mueller almost got him but he employed certain techniques to obscure evidence, and evaded legal conviction. Then he'd end by looking at the screen, and telling Mueller, "Good game, comrade, but not good enough; KGB>FBI!" This time, he'd sound presidential for the whole interview.

manqiangrexue said:

I really like this guy. I would not be completely shocked if he finished in 2024, disappeared several years later, then appeared in Russia on Russian TV speaking perfect Russian about how difficult it was for him to completely manipulate and circumvent America's checks and balances system in order to carry out his objectives. This time, he'd sound presidential.

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Seriously, I hope Xi is backing Putin with monetary resources to manipulate the 2020 elections in Trump's favor. I'm surprised people, even on this board, proclaim Trump to be some mastermind genius. No, he's not. He does random bs that completely destroys American soft power without much gain based completely on feeling while surrounding himself with sycophants.

Does Trump and his gang realise that they're using precious American power, goodwill and reputation built up as a result of decades of global leadership?

Trump may not think of soft power as real power, he probably likes concrete numbers more, like how much trade deficit there is or how many illegal immigrants have entered the country. But soft power is REAL power and in some sense it may even be more important than hard power. It takes a long time to build up trust and respect, but only a brief moment to destroy it all.

To be honest, even as a Chinese, I feel really sad for all these things that Trump and the US is doing. I was born in 1995, and I grew up in an era of American ideological supremacy and rapid globalisation. As an economics & law student at an Australian university, what Trump has done is a mockery of all the economic and legal principles that I truly believe in. Free trade, free market, comparative advantage, separation of powers, protection of the private company, the list goes on.

I still believe these, and I'm not saying that China has done a great job in these respects. But the US was supposed to be a role model, a leader, or at the very least pretend to be one. Trump's America doesn't even PRETEND to be that role model it once was. And that's quite sad.

P.S. Nothing in this post is directed at the American people. I'm not fanning nationalism or hatred. I'm only expressing my feelings towards Trump and his administration. If the mods feel this is inappropriate, let me know and I'll delete it.

xiabonan said:

Does Trump and his gang realise that they're using precious American power, goodwill and reputation built up as a result of decades of global leadership?

Trump may not think of soft power as real power, he probably likes concrete numbers more, like how much trade deficit there is or how many illegal immigrants have entered the country. But soft power is REAL power and in some sense it may even be more important than hard power. It takes a long time to build up trust and respect, but only a brief moment to destroy it all.

To be honest, even as a Chinese, I feel really sad for all these things that Trump and the US is doing. I was born in 1995, and I grew up in an era of American ideological supremacy and rapid globalisation. As an economics & law student at an Australian university, what Trump has done is a mockery of all the economic and legal principles that I truly believe in. Free trade, free market, comparative advantage, separation of powers, protection of the private company, the list goes on.

I still believe these, and I'm not saying that China has done a great job in these respects. But the US was supposed to be a role model, a leader, or at the very least pretend to be one. Trump's America doesn't even PRETEND to be that role model it once was. And that's quite sad.

P.S. Nothing in this post is directed at the American people. I'm not fanning nationalism or hatred. I'm only expressing my feelings towards Trump and his administration. If the mods feel this is inappropriate, let me know and I'll delete it.

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That's where you're wrong. US gets away with these things. They got away with all those wars and they'll get away with this. That's not even considering the positive perception of whites in Asia.

China has stopped buying US soybeans. What's the point of tariffs which is mainly symbolic, when you can just simply stop buying altogether.



China Puts U.S. Soy Buying on Hold as Tariff War Escalates

Tam said:

China has stopped buying US soybeans. What's the point of tariffs which is mainly symbolic, when you can just simply stop buying altogether.

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China Puts U.S. Soy Buying on Hold as Tariff War Escalates

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A recent Chinese report is also pointing out that in many parts of China local governments have started to encourage farmers to grow soy beans and output is expected to double in 2020.

KIENCHIN said:

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Only the Chinese and possibly a small portion of the rest of the population. The majority of the Malays are no fan of the US because of the issues in the Middle East. Make no mistake about it the majority of the Chinese population are pro China.

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And the Chinese in Malaysia is ~25% of the population and control very much of the Malaysian economic, the Indian is about 8%

A competent US president would have teamed up with the Eight nation alliance to force China to open her doors and ports.

An incompetent President would have abandoned the TPP-like treaties with like-minded allies and attack China alone with bombast and arrogance.

Trump is very much is a blessing in disguise, for China has awaken to the true character of US hegemonic ambitions in every sphere from cyber, technology, economics and geopolitics. A wakeup call is truly needed to prepare for a critical moment before China emerge as a inevitable superpower.

Phead128 said:

A competent US president would have teamed up with the Eight nation alliance to force China to open her doors and ports.

An incompetent President would have abandoned the TPP-like treaties with like-minded allies and attack China alone with bombast and arrogance.

Trump is very much is a blessing in disguise, for China has awaken to the true character of US hegemonic ambitions in every sphere from cyber, technology, economics and geopolitics. A wakeup call is truly needed to prepare for a critical moment before China emerge as a inevitable superpower.

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This is very much true.

I've listened to several analysts within China and it seems that there are a few things that the Chinese leadership feared the most going into a trade war, the first and foremost thing is a US-Europe-Japan united front against China on trade. If this happens, China probably would have no choice but to comply with their demands. The second is a recession or great setback in economic growth. At the start of the trade issues a year ago Chinese authorities weren't sure if the Chinese economy can withstand the impact of the tariffs and continue to grow at a reasonable speed. However now that a year has passed China's economic performance has given the Chinese leadership a lot more confidence. With quite mild policy support and stimulation the economy is doing just fine, not fantastic, but certainly far from terrible.

The third is domestic opinion on trade war. There was real fear that the Chinese people are going to view a trade war as unnecessary and "troublesome" and the government was afraid of a backlash if it holds a too-strong stance on this. This is also why domestic online discussion of trade war issues were almost entirely silenced for the past year or so up until the talks broke up. But with the Huawei incident the government has gained enough popular support on this issue and has achieved some kind of common understanding with the people in the sense that China cannot back down and "this is not just about trade, but about technological advancement and future development".

When it concerns our future generations, Chinese people would usually be more willing to endure some hardships today.

Phead128 said:

A competent US president would have teamed up with the Eight nation alliance to force China to open her doors and ports.

An incompetent President would have abandoned the TPP-like treaties with like-minded allies and attack China alone with bombast and arrogance.

Trump is very much is a blessing in disguise, for China has awaken to the true character of US hegemonic ambitions in every sphere from cyber, technology, economics and geopolitics. A wakeup call is truly needed to prepare for a critical moment before China emerge as a inevitable superpower.

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Just being fussy. It should be teaming up with SEVEN nations, if I think you were refering to what happened last time! Lol

On a more serious note, I'll quote Napolian: "Never interrupt your opponent when he is making mistakes"!