The economic war between the United States
and China has been mostly a silent, passive, and masked one before the Trump
Administration. The U.S. had long feared losing its global economic power, and
this reality is becoming more the case as China flexes its global economic and
political ambition and engage trade under both absolute advantage and zero-sum
neo-mercantilist strategies. After all, The
Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, taught us that you cannot expect to take a
dragon’s treasures and gold without suffering some form of loss or devastation.
The U.S. is at the better and more positive end of the spectrum in doing
business with China when compared to poor, developing, and underdeveloped
nations.
China is currently the world’s second
largest economy and growing, and this growth won’t be curbed by U.S. economic
strategies as China has been investing rapidly across the globe and the outflow
and inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) for China will be net positive
when compared to its trading partners, including the United States.
Furthermore, China’s fixed capital formation is increasing rapidly as
multinational corporations are still building manufacturing and other plants
and offices in China due to its cheap labor and mastering of economic incentives
in an effort to outdo the U.S. and maintain the current prosperity it is
enjoying. The Chinese represents a large percentage of the world’s emerging wealthy
consumers and the Chinese government has no plans in curbing the modern
materialism engrossing and fueling Chinese workmanship, belief in the
competence of their government, and Chinese destiny that has always exalted
Chinese leadership as directly descending from Heaven. The U.S. at the height
of its imperial hegemony declared a Manifest Destiny, but the Chinese Myth of
Creation has long communicated and sustained their own despite the
transformations and changes that the Chinese people, their nation, and society
have undergone over the last few thousand years. Thus, the Chinese resolve has
been long established within its mythical and divine origin, its approach to
life and philosophy of relationships and foreign affairs. The nations under
Imperial Tang within Asia and the Korean Peninsula knew this all too well from
long before English and U.S. histories were written.
The recent decision by the Trump
Administration to impose tariffs on China represents sort of similar strategy
that China in its past was noted for using against Gorguyeo, Silla, and Baekje
(The Three Kingdoms of Korea) in an effort to not only demonstrate political
power, but cement its rule in Asia and in the northern and central parts of the
Korean Peninsula and the southern and central parts of Manchuria. Thus, China
is used to such kind of game and the Trump Administration might be making a
futile effort in getting China to retract its ensnarement of trade and
opportunities. After all, which nation will easily give up its advantages in
economy and trade in a tightening century of global competition and declining
resources where a future of overpopulation, drastic climatic changes, and war
over resources including basic food and water resources might be the most
fervent stimuli for an ultimate apocalypse?
The Chinese imposition of tariffs on 128
products in ending-March-April 2018 as a retaliation for the U.S.’ imposition
of similar tariffs, mainly geared to secure U.S. steel and other key industries,
communicates China’s resolve in maintaining its present course toward global
economic dominance and power. With the elimination of term limits for current
President Xi Xinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and
Chairman of the Central Military Commission, China is demonstrating its
willingness to stay on its current prosperous and powerful economic and
political course without deviation. America and President Trump can cry “unfair
competition” all they want, but China will not change its lucrative age for
friendship or endorsement. This stubbornness is particularly enforced by
China’s modern memory and experience in the late 1800s and early 1900s with
western colonialism and Japanese imperialism and the impact that weathered
Chinese into being labeled the “Sick Men of Asia”. Never again will the Chinese
become the “Sick Men of Asia” but the rulers of Asia as in “Asia The
Invincible” [metaphorically expressed in the movie, The East is Red] whose power and transformations are mighty and
unstoppable. China, as the metaphorical “Asia The Invincible” is here to
dominate in the 21st century as the world’s greatest economic and
political power, and apart from its willing and overly patriotic people and
culture, the Chinese have numbers and strategies on their sides, and a knack
for friending the enemies of its friends. Chinese attitude toward Taiwan is
only an indication of the hard stances it will take in the future on a global
level as it faces and deals with challenges in Asia and clashes with the West
over trade and other issues.
About
the Author
Dr.
Donovan A. McFarlane teaches in the fields of Political Science and Public
Administration to include courses on American Government, The Presidency, and
Public Policy. He has extensively taught in the fields of Business and
Management at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Some of the major courses
he has facilitated include International Business, Organizational Behavior,
Marketing, Strategic Management, among other courses. He currently writes
articles in several areas for his Blog, Forum
of Business, Organizations, and Society (FOBOS): http://businessorganizationssociety.blogspot.com/
