The thing is, China does not have to go back thousands of years to know better.
In the past few decades China has seen and managed a lot worse scenarios. The transitioning from command economy to market economy during the 80s caused so much chaos and corruption that it directly led to the Tiananmen Square thing. During the 90s China was faced with trade sanctions imposed by almost all major Western countries and mainly the US. In 1995 the US imposed sanctions on China for IP protection (yes back then there's no trade war, only unilateral sanctions). In the late 1990s China went through an Asian Financial Crisis and a painful restructuring of SOEs which resulted in tens of millions of SOE workers losing their once-thought-to-be-lifetime-guaranteed jobs and a major social shakeup and unrest. In the early 2000s China's economy truly started to skyrocket following its entry into the WTO, but not without cost. Many domestic industries were lost and eradicated or bought by foreign companies. And then there's the 2008 GFC and the famous 4 trillion dollar stimulus.
My point is China, and the Chinese people, doesn't have to look that far back into history to know and realise we've fought harder battles and survived them, and prospered afterwards.
This year marks the 100 year anniversary of the May Fourth Movement which was a landmark event in modern Chinese history, and the 70th anniversary of the PRC. In the past 100 years we have experienced foreign invasions, two world wars, Japanese occupation, a bloody civil war, famines, droughts, political turmoils and internal battles for power, the Cold War; and all kinds of ideologies - Capitalism, Imperialism, Democracy, Republic, Communism, Socialism, command economy, mixed economy, market economy.
Yes it's true that today's China is more wary of wars, be it a hot war or an economic one. Many have become complacent. But it's not because of weakness or cowardice, but because we know it took a lot of hard work to get to where we are now and we don't want to throw it away.
Trump will never understand this as he was born rich. He will never understand what it's like to work hard for something to get it. That's why he will not understand the Chinese. That's why he will not truly understand the American farmers.
In the past few decades China has seen and managed a lot worse scenarios. The transitioning from command economy to market economy during the 80s caused so much chaos and corruption that it directly led to the Tiananmen Square thing. During the 90s China was faced with trade sanctions imposed by almost all major Western countries and mainly the US. In 1995 the US imposed sanctions on China for IP protection (yes back then there's no trade war, only unilateral sanctions). In the late 1990s China went through an Asian Financial Crisis and a painful restructuring of SOEs which resulted in tens of millions of SOE workers losing their once-thought-to-be-lifetime-guaranteed jobs and a major social shakeup and unrest. In the early 2000s China's economy truly started to skyrocket following its entry into the WTO, but not without cost. Many domestic industries were lost and eradicated or bought by foreign companies. And then there's the 2008 GFC and the famous 4 trillion dollar stimulus.
My point is China, and the Chinese people, doesn't have to look that far back into history to know and realise we've fought harder battles and survived them, and prospered afterwards.
This year marks the 100 year anniversary of the May Fourth Movement which was a landmark event in modern Chinese history, and the 70th anniversary of the PRC. In the past 100 years we have experienced foreign invasions, two world wars, Japanese occupation, a bloody civil war, famines, droughts, political turmoils and internal battles for power, the Cold War; and all kinds of ideologies - Capitalism, Imperialism, Democracy, Republic, Communism, Socialism, command economy, mixed economy, market economy.
Yes it's true that today's China is more wary of wars, be it a hot war or an economic one. Many have become complacent. But it's not because of weakness or cowardice, but because we know it took a lot of hard work to get to where we are now and we don't want to throw it away.
Trump will never understand this as he was born rich. He will never understand what it's like to work hard for something to get it. That's why he will not understand the Chinese. That's why he will not truly understand the American farmers.
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