After 19 months of talks and quarrels, the phase one of the agreement between China and the US is about be materialized. Judging from the text, both sides have made concessions. The US got its way regarding intellectual property rights and lowering trade deficit; China secured the cancellation of some of the tariffs imposed. From the perspective of the respective needs of both sides, Xi Jinping got a breather in alleviating domestic economic pressure; Trump got to free his hands to focus on the general election in 2020. Only two groups of people felt particularly dissatisfied with the deal. One group being the people do not want to see Trump reelected. Paul Krugman for one wrote a piece for the New York Times on December 17, insisting that Trump lost in this trade war. The other group being the opposition camp in China, a camp that wished Trump to directly bring about the collapse of the Communist party by means of the trade war. These two groups people had basically disregarded the fact that the fruit of victory for the US lay not in such trivial matters as tariffs but in forcing the Communist Party to revert from the aggressive mode back to the defensive mode.
The origin of the Hong Kong problem and the way for a win-win solution
This article, if published before the August 18 peaceful march, would doubtlessly be criticized by people from all sides. And in fact, even today, I do not expect it to draw no criticism. Nonetheless, I hope that the people who read this post would think calmly over my reasoning. After all, the protest movement that has been on going for a few months, with the people of Hong Kong shedding sweat and even blood on the streets, should bear fruits that are conducive to both sides. This should be the best result that can be hoped for.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)