Why Trump Is Hitting On China On China

Suddenly, Donald Trump’s Trade War is in Much Sharper Focus.

Rather Than A Fight On Fronts Against The World, this now looks Far More Like a Family Trumpian Territory: America v China.

The 90-Day Pause On The Higher “Retaliatory” Tariffs Levied Dozens Of Counters Leaves A Universal Across-The-Board Tariff Of 10% in Place.

But china – which ships from iPhones to Children’s Toys and Accounts Around 14% Of All Usports – has been Singled Out for Much Harsher Treventa 125%.

Trump Said The Increase Was Beijing’s Readiness To Retaliate With ITS Own 84% Levy On US Goods, A Move President Described AS Showing A “Lack of Respect”.

For a Political Who First Fight His Way to The White House On The Back Anti-China Message, There is More Much More To Than Simple Retaliation.

For Trump, this is about the unfinished Business of That First Term in Office.

“We didn’t have the time to do the right thing, which we’re do now,” He Told Reporsters.

The Aim Is Nothing Of UPenDing Of The UPDING SYSTEM CENTRED CHINA AS The Factory of The World

To Understand Just How Central This is to the US President’s Thinking, You Need To Go Back Anyone Ever Thought Of Him As A Possible Candidate Office, Let Alone a Likely Winner.

In 2012, when I First Reported – China’s Business Capital – Increased Trade With The Country Was Seen – Global Business Leaders, Chinese Officials, Visiting Foreign Governments and Trade Delegations, Foreign Correspondents and Learned Economists – As A No Brainer.

It was Boosting Global Growth, Enriching China’s Army’s New Factory Workers Increasingly Embedded in Global Supply Chains, and Providing Lucrative Opportunities to Their Wares Newly Middle Classes.

Within a Few of my arrival, China Had Surpassed The US to Betcome The World’s Biggest Market for Rolls Royce, General Motors and Volkswagen.

There was a Deeper Justification, too.

As China Got Richer, So The Theory Went, Chinese People Would Begin to Begin Political Reform.

Their spender habits would also help China Transition to a Consumer Society.

But The First of Those Aspirations Never Happened, With China’s Ruling Communist Party Only Tightening Power on IT GRIP.

And The Second One Didn’t Fast Enough, With China Not Only Still Dependent Exports, Butpenly Planning to Become Ever More Dominant.

ITS infamous policy – published in China 2025 – Set out of a Huge State-Backed Vision of Becoming a global leader in a number of Key Manufacturing Sectors, From Aerospace to Ship Building to Electric Vehicles.

And So It Was Later, A Complete Political UN outsider-run For US President, Making The Case’s Trail That China’s Rise Had Hollow the American Rustbelt Decline and Cost Blue-Collar Workers Their Livelihoods and dignity.

Trump’s First-Term Trade War Broke The Mold and Shattered The Consensus. His Successor, President Joe Biden, Kept Much Of His Tariffs on China Place.

And yet, Even Though Though Thought Caused China Some Pain, They Not Have Much To Change The Economic Model.

China Now Products 60% of the World’s Electric Cars – A Large Proportion Of Them Made by Itown Homegrown Brands – And 80% Of The Batteries That Power Them.

So, Now Trump Is Back, With Levies on Tit-For-Tat Escation.

It should be arguably, the Biggest Shock Ever Delivered to The Established Global Trading System, Were It Not On-Again Off-Again Tariff Measures The US President has rolled out in Recent Days.

What Happens Next Depends Two Key Questions.

Firstly, Whether China Takes Up That Offer To Negotiate.

And Secondly Assuming It Eventually Does, Whether China Is Willing To Make The Kind of Major Concessions That Looking For, Including Complete Overhaul of Its Export Driven Economic Model.

In Answering Them, The First Thing to Say Is That We Are Intchartered Territory, So We Should Be Wary of Anyone Who Says them Know How Beijing Is Likely To React.

But there are even Certain reasons to be cautious.

China’s Vision of Economic Strength – One Strong Exports and A Tightly Protected Domestic Market – Is Now Closely Bound Up With Idea of ​​National Rejuvenation and The Supremacy of Its Party System.

Its Tight Control Over The Information Sphere Means It Will Be Unlikely to Drop IT Barriers to American Technology Companies, Example.

But there is a third question, and it is One for America to Answer.

Does the US Still Believe In Free Trade? Donald Trump Suggests That Tariffs Are A Good Thing, Not Merely As A Means to An End, But As An End in Themselves.

He Talks About The Protectionist Barrier For America, Indourate Domestic Investment, Encourage American Companies To Bring Those Those Those Chains Back Home, and Raise Tax Revenues.

And IF Beijing Believes That is Independed The Primary Purpose Of The Rariffs, It May Decide There Is Nothing To Negotiate Anyway.

Rather Than Championing The Idea of ​​Economic Co-Operation, The World’s Two Biggest SuperPowers May Find Themselves Locked in Winner-Takes-All Economic Supremacy.

If so, That Really Mark A Shattering Of The Old Consensus, And A Very Different, Possibly Very Dangerous, Future.