True, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin effectively declared an end to the 24-year-old strong dollar policy in January 2018. The White House quickly backtracked as markets quaked. In 2019, expect a new currency push. One motivation: US growth is losing momentum. Trump is anxious to keep the key source of his legitimacy humming along. The bigger objective, though, is reminding Asia who’s boss.
…the post–Cold War interregnum of U.S. hegemony is over, and bipolarity is set to return, with China playing the role of the junior superpower. The transition will be a tumultuous, perhaps even violent, affair, as China’s rise sets the country on a collision course with the United States over a number of clashing interests. But as Washington slowly retreats from some of its diplomatic and military engagements abroad, Beijing has no clear plan for filling this leadership vacuum and shaping new international norms from the ground up.
Low Earth orbit (LEO) is becoming increasingly cluttered after 60 years of continuous rocket and satellite launches. Even the tiniest piece of debris, orbiting at speed, can pose a major threat to the International Space Station and active satellites. China is one of the many countries responsible for the mess.
The arrest of Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou was apparently a long time coming. U.S. investigators began looking into Huawei’s dealings when Iran’s once Chinese-backed ZTE was identified as a sanctions-breaker. U.S. prosecutors now appear to have substantial evidence of the Chinese Communist Party’s state-backed mobile and technology company’s violations of the sanctions regime against Iran.
President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to a temporary trade ceasefire to allow time for more negotiations. The move means that U.S. tariffs on $200 billion worth of goods will not rise to 25 percent on Jan. 1, from 10 percent currently. As part of the deal, China agreed to buy “a very substantial amount of agricultural, energy, industrial, and other product from the United States to reduce the trade imbalance between our two countries,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.
Also read: Trump’s Slump: What The US And Chinese Leaders’ Body Language Tells Us About Their G20 talks
After years of economic symbiosis in which the US purchased low-cost Chinese imports and China purchased US Treasuries, China has begun to pursue the prerogatives of a superpower, and the US has responded in kind. As a result, both countries are becoming more alike, particularly in their belief that there can be only one winner.
Trump, by standing firm in Argentina this weekend, can accelerate the trend of disengagement of the American and Chinese companies. Yet it is not only the American president who is pushing factories out of China. Xi Jinping is also helping the cause of disengagement by punishing American companies in China, turning Fortune 500 behemoths into potential hostages with thus an added reason to leave the country.
Read Here – The National Interest
Also Read – The Trump-Xi Meeting Isn’t Just About Economics
Chinese and American officials may have spent weeks preparing for the high-stakes summit between Xi Jinping and Donald Trump this weekend, but any hopes of resolving the current trade war may ultimately hinge on their personal chemistry. Their encounter in Buenos Aires on the sidelines of the G20 summit will be the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders in nearly a year – and the first since Trump started the trade war over the summer.
Indeed, the rise of Asia as a whole is recasting the physical and mental map of the world. Proliferating transnational relationships and new flows of finance, trade, technology, information, energy and labour have created three new strategic geographies which are already escaping the shadow of transatlantic arrangements. They essentially represent the collision of erstwhile political constructs – and their management requires new ideas, nimble institutions and fluid partnerships.
Photo by chuttersnap on Unsplash
Facing escalating geopolitical competition with the US, China is scrambling to win friends in East Asia. But while China’s neighbours will undoubtedly welcome any respite from Chinese belligerence, they will not be fooled by sweet talk – or even sweet trade deals.
