China wasn’t ready for the trade war with the United States.
The endgame in the trade war between China and the United States seems near. President Trump, betting with real currency — American strength — apparently has the upper hand, and the concessions President Xi Jinping is likely to make won’t be mere tokens. When — if? — an agreement is finally announced, Mr. Trump will surely fire off bragging tweets, partly to shore up his credentials for a second term, amid personal and policy troubles. For Mr. Xi, almost any deal could mean a very serious loss of face.
More here: Panda Played the Dragon Game – Now Trump Targets the Bamboo Forest…
What “personal and policy troubles”? Trump has no “personal and policy troubles”. It is the damned democrats that are in serious trouble.
Typical NYTimes garbage.
correct. lies and innuendo are not personal troubles they are items to kicked to the curb while continuing to work for the country.
Wishful thinking isn’t news. Or in this case, Opinion.
However, having read the WHOLE article written by a Chinese expat living and teaching in Japan, it is spot-on in its understanding of Chinese history. But note it’s conclusion is that The Chinese Dear Leader … “overshot”. Not that he has been mortally wounded by Trump’s shot through his heart. Even as the author documents the bowing capitulation of EVERY prior POTUS … he virtually ignores the name Trump in this Tariff takeaway.
Just another FOOL underestimating the name “Trump” as being synonymous with a middle schoolers new Twitter handle. I would have expected a learned professor such as this writer, who surely has read the Art of War to understand PDJT’s brazen, unconventional, public persona is a mask … a humorous mask … concealing deadly serious tactics underneath.
If Communist China is brought to heel (once again) … it will ALL be Trump’s … “fault” (read: tactical brilliance).
Yes, even in an article that basically said Xi lost (“overshot”), the author cannot resist taking pot shots at our President. You beat me to it, what “personal and policy troubles” indeed. I don’t know if he is required to do this in order to have a column in the NYT.
I may be wrong, but I think the one piece of information not part of the CTH analysis is that China always plays the long game. Trump’s time in office is short, even if re-elected. Xi’s is for life and wields power western leaders can only have wet dreams about. And there will be continuity of purpose after he gets bored with being top dog, because he’ll have set up his succession plan well in advance of that.
To borrow from the Star Trek universe, the Ferengi were created to “unmask” the evils of capitalism. However, I think they’re more applicable to China’s protectionist/expansionist self-interest these days. “A contract is a contract is a contract… but only between Han.” “War is good for business.” “Peace is good for business.” “Once you have their money, you never give it back.” “The bigger the smile, the sharper the knife.” And many others. They’re a very opportunistic culture, based on my observations, and they will do anything and everything they can get away with…they’re a perfect example of “what the market will bear” in their activities, kind of like a child testing its limits. A child with a nuclear arsenal.
So even if/when Trump comes away on top in the short term, I deem it quite likely that there will be some future snap-back, as China attempts to reacquire what it loses, both economically and in face, but I’d rather not try to speculate what form that will take. I don’t have enough understanding of the culture to get anywhere close to predicting the future “proportionate response”.
The Chicoms respect strength.
They respect Trump and the US of A.
Canada and Potato head they laugh and sneer at.
Our child of a PM should be taking lessons from Donald but he is too busy importing terrorists to pay any attention.
F*ck the Chicoms.
After the four previous SFB and/or crooked occupants of the office, America finally has a President who represents the best interest of the people and who is tough and smart as a whip.
Let’s see what the final deal looks like. The USMCA was a disappointment – very minor impact.
Really? Tell that to the Canadian Economy. I just “tipped” someone we both know in Canada $50 Can. and it only cost me $38 US. I kinda feel guilty … like I owe her more. But then … Christallis Freeland and your sock monkey aren’t my fault.
Since the Americans gave Canada the ‘backhand’ over Arctic passage yesterday maybe Turdeau should throw in with the Chicoms. While the USA was busy in Iraq and Afganistan Canada should have been building her Arctic presence. Harper decides to build a Class 8 icebreaker and gets defeated and Turdeau cancels the icebreaker and gets the backhand. I go back to my repeated thesis that the USA, Russia and OPEC all have significant concerns about a strong Canada. Oil and Gas could have saved Canada’s independence but this has been pissed away. Canadian relations with Russia are on the outs over Ukraine, outs with the Saudis over ‘slice & dice, on the outs with the Chinese over kidnapping and on the outs with the Americans for being freeloaders. How is a quiet socialist country supposed to sneak bye in today’s world?
The US was recognizing reality. Canada is unwilling to defend the Arctic, and so someone has to. As a practical matter, you don’t own what you can’t protect. The best option would be Canada/US patrols ( or NATO patrols ) and presence in in the Arctic, but guess what, 2 of the 3 won’t show up. It is the threat of a Russian and Chinese presence in the Arctic that requires this position by the US, and is actually consistent with their view of all international straits. ( the only exception is the St. Lawrence estuary, where the US recognizes Canadian sovereignty, despite its importance to US Great Lakes shipping.)
There’s a possibility that the Chicoms will call Trump’s bluff and allow Trump’s threatened tariffs to add up to $50 billion a year to the US consumer’s costs just as the painfully long presidential political multi-seasonal event is warming up. Chinese pain doesn’t translate to lost votes for their dictator and they would naturally prefer a Dem take out Trump.
The author underlines Xi’s belief, following Mao, that China is fated to rule the world, and compares Xi’s China to a cointry of “patriotic thieves.”
In other words, the Chinese are the Jews Hitler warned you about. That’s why the people who bankrolled the Holocaust broadly approve of their basic dictatorship.
Note too—the authors’ biggest concern is that “innocent” overseas Chinese like himself will be the victims of a future clash of western and Chinese civilization. If he thought only white people would pay the price, he would have kept his mouth shut. He thinks of us as barbarians useful to his master race only as slaves—nothing more.
Please don’t say the future clash of western and Chinese civilization. The Chicom does not represent in any way traditional Chinese civilization, which they spent the first thirty years, at least, of their rule trying to destroy. The “simplified” writing was a master stroke to prevent people from reading the classics. In one generation, no one in China could read them, written in traditional writing. If we in the west can manage to retain our freedom (which is not a given at all, looking at what has already happened in Canada and GB), the future clash would be between freedom and collectivist civilization, whether it practices Marxism, globalism, or sharia.
Because the Chicom realize that they will never rule the world if they were stuck in the 1960’s, and because they want to seduce the ethnic Chinese living and working in western countries into being “patriotic thieves” for them, they have begun to assume some aspects of traditional Chinese civilization as well as free enterprise in their outer cover. But Xi in his egoism has ripped enough away to fully expose the unchanged Marxist state underneath.
However, I have seen and heard enough to realize that some, perhaps many, of the ethnic Chinese can succumb to the seduction of ethnic pride. And I would be very careful about ethnic Chinese holding security clearances.
My impression about the simplified script was always that it had been intended to improve rural literacy and “equalise” them to their more-urban comrades, but I find your position to be just as likely and tonnes more scary. My wife–in her 40s–can read some of the traditional hanzi with difficulty, but I don’t think her parents have that problem, if they choose to read them. She’s commented that there was a lot of dispute at the time about the choices made in changing some of the characters, in terms of what was left behind.
Not everyone who leaves China wants to bring it with them, based on my observations. Travelling internationally a lot did not change my wife’s mind much about China, but moving here has had a gradual and increasing effect on her views, freedom of press and freedom to criticise the government not least among her swings. Even though she occasionally worries about safety due to the lower population density (“not enough people to see what happens”), she feels more comfortable living here and now thinks of it as home. That said, I think if push came to shove, she’d jump for China (not 100% sure because of our baby), but if it came to a choice between sharia and China, so would I.
You actually believe that the Chicom would do anything for sake of the people? The “simplified” script was introduced in 1964, two years before the Cultural Revolution. It is all part and parcel of the same package to destroy traditional Chinese culture.
Simplified writing had always been around, like abbreviations for English words. But the simplified characters had always been recognized as stand-ins for the proper characters. There are four sets of characters recognized, and there were pamphlets showing all four together. They are respectively characters that were used in the Han dynasty (which is ancient and arcane), characters that have been used since the Tang dynasty ( proper characters.), “walking characters” that link the strokes together to facilitate writing, and “grass” characters that are even more simplified than the Chicom set. Ironically, it is only the very literate who can read and write the “grass” characters. It is an art unto itself. Simplified characters had no such standing, it is used in casual writing along with the “walking characters.”
If you know the proper characters, it doesn’t take much effort to be able to read the Chicom simplified characters. But if you only know the simplified characters, you cannot read a passage written in proper characters. This is not hyperbole or prejudice. I have talked to many people who emigrated from mainland China, and they all lament that inability.
Oh, I believe you. It’s just so…insidious. It hearkens back to “control the language and control the culture” (or whatever) to be sure.
Thanks for the additional information. 🙂
No one’s ‘ready’ for a trade war because trade wars have only losers. The people to suffer from Trump’s tariffs are primarily Americans. Can we please just elect Biden already and put an end to this idiocy?