Trade War with China

drowingfish said:

China would not be a threat to the US in a hundred years.

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excuse me, while I wish this statement was true, I find it hard to believe. The US has chosen to be on the opposite side of China on almost ALL issues.
Certainly Uncle Sam is no friend of China and the Chinese people. Just to name a few facts.
1) military: encirclement of China with military bases all around, selling advanced weapons to Japan, India etc to antagonise China. But serving China with a military embargo for the last 2 decades, and possibly for the next 2 decades as well.
2) space: refused to allow Chinese participation in all US space programs.
3) politics: friendly to all of China's neighbours but not China, antagonise Chinese interests in Taiwan and the South China Seas.
4) high tech industry: not selling anything high tech to China to stifle her growth.

1. No one expected China to rise so quickly. Not even Chinese themselves.
2. America is a friend as long as you listen to Uncle Sam.

localizer said:

2. America is a friend as long as you listen to obey Uncle Sam.

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Fixed that for ya

vincent said:

Fixed that for ya

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Europe is learning this hard reality to their dismay.

now noticed the tweet





Chinese Vice Premier Liu He will visit the US for further economic and trade talks from Feb 21 to 22 with US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

Jura said:

now noticed the tweet

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Chinese Vice Premier Liu He will visit the US for further economic and trade talks from Feb 21 to 22 with US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

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I am pretty sure there will be a deal ...... the question is what kind of deal?

antiterror13 said:

I am pretty sure there will be a deal ...... the question is what kind of deal?

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Probably status quo ante bellum. US simply doesn’t have any cards on the table and China wants very little from the US economically aside from it staying a stable big market.

LOL what a funny post, basically calling just for over $300b trade surplus
(in 2018 was $352b overall, $323b with the US: )
:

Biscuits said:

Probably status quo ante bellum. US simply doesn’t have any cards on the table and China wants very little from the US economically aside from it staying a stable big market.

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Biscuits said:

Probably status quo ante bellum. US simply doesn’t have any cards on the table and China wants very little from the US economically aside from it staying a stable big market.

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That’s far too rosy a picture.

The Chinese and American economies are highly integrated and co-dependant, by design.

The previous expectation was that the US cannot hurt the Chinese economy without hurting itself also.

However, if the US is prepared to shoot through its own body to inflict pain on China, then that whole calculus unravels, and that’s pretty much what Trump has done.

If the US is prepared to shoot more holes in its own economy to spite China, then it can still cause a lot of damage, even if they hurt themselves more in the process.

There is no question that Trump massively underestimated China and overplayed his hand. He probably expected China to meekly cave in like Canada and Mexico did on NAFTA.

The problem is that Trump is also an incredibly vain, selfish and stubborn creature, so it is entirely possible he would rather the world burn than admit he made a mistake.

What more, with his domestic troubles, it is not outside the realm of possibility for him to look for external threats to try and distract the masses.

The US before the trade war or even before the steel and aluminium tarrifs had about 500 non tarrif barriers in place. More than any other country in the world. And they still managed to have a trade deficit with about 100 countries that they trade with around the world. What this shows you is that the trade deficits of the US is the symptom rather than the disease.

Since the trade war started the US has seen the trade deficit grow, the stockmarket fall, the economy slow and industrial jobs fail to materialize.

The real issue here is internal to the US. It has monetary, economic, financial and fiscal policies in place that favours speculation and consumption over production, investments and savings. And as long as that continues no amount of trade protection or blaming of other countries will solve America's economic problems.

Powerful nations throughout history don't fall because of external competition. But they fall because of internal decay. The US will be no different.