US tariffs of 104% on Chinese goods now in force (1 Viewer)

[HazzRat]

Anyone who reads something like this and thinks that there's a future where America and China are just peaceful friendly trading partners needs their head examined

Last year, Chinese hackers intruded into US civilian infrastructure, including air traffic control. China first blamed criminals, but now they admit it was state-backed & pursued as a matter of war planning. Decoupling is simply inevitable, even if it is painful for investors Last year, Chinese hackers intruded into US civilian infrastructure, including air traffic control. China first blamed criminals, but now they admit it was state-backed & pursued as a matter of war planning. Decoupling is simply inevitable, even if it is painful for investors

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It's amazing how people are willing to essentially support the prospect of WW3 with Russia, and think that Trump being willing to negotiate with Russia means he's irremediably evil and must be destroyed

but then apparently, anything other than unilateral free trade policies towards china are too expensive to consider, and that Russia's most important ally including following the invasion of ukraine is a good country that doesn't deserve negative treatment

you can't make this shit up

Wouldn’t it be the best outcome for everyone if the US-China relationship was trade and only trade? They don’t need to be geopolitical buddies. All that is needed is for the American consumer and the Chinese producer to benefit for the relationship to be justified. Like a divorced couple who puts the kids first sorta arrangement.

 

[SylviaB]

Wouldn’t it be the best outcome for everyone if the US-China relationship was trade and only trade? They don’t need to be geopolitical buddies. All that is needed is for the American consumer and the Chinese producer to benefit for the relationship to be justified. Like a divorced couple who puts the kids first sorta arrangement.

This is hopelessly confused

The US and China have different and INCOMPATIBLE geopolitical goals and aims, and trade and geopolitics are not independent things

What if China wants to take over Taiwan? The US doesn't want this, which means they will face a conflict with China if China tries to invade. And if the US were to let China invade and do nothing to stop it, then that means the US is sacrificing its geopolitical goals to avoid upsetting trade with China. This is the opposite of trade and geopolitics being separate as you seem to think they are.

Further, the US is dependent on China for things that it needs, directly or indirectly, to pursue or maintain its geopolitical goals. Which means China can and will use the treat of cutting this off to advance its own geopolitical (and trade) goals

Additionally, maintaining the current trade arrangement with China means China gets stronger indefinitely, and the strength of China directly influences the ability of the US to achieve its geopolitical goals (because these goals are often at odds with China's geopolitical goals)

You're basically just saying "why can't we all just get along" without trying to understand any of the reasons why there's any conflict at all in the first place

And of course, you act like the US is the crazy one here, as if China is a free trade country that just wants to mind its own business and fairly build its economy. China are the ones who had extremely unfree and anti-competitive trade practices in the first place. Trump's approach is not great so far, but people like you never, ever talked about China's unfree trade practices at any point before, which means you're either being uninformed or dishonest when you act like the US are the ones being unreasonable for not supporting free trade.