samedi 11 février 2017

Paper Tiger Trump

Trump surrenders to China on Taiwan, gets nothing in return, looks weak
By Brooklynbadboy
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China knows'Trump isn't strong. 
He's weak.
Trump decided to make a lot of noise, but in the end chose to maintain the status quo, significantly weakening himself in the eyes of the Chinese:
By backing down in a telephone call with China’s president on his promise to review the status of Taiwan, Trump may have averted a confrontation with America’s most powerful rival.
But in doing so, he handed China a victory and sullied his reputation with its leader, Xi Jinping, as a tough negotiator who ought to be feared.
“Trump lost his first fight with Xi and he will be looked at as a paper tiger,” said Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University of China, in Beijing, and an adviser to China’s State Council. 
“This will be interpreted in China as a great success, achieved by Xi’s approach of dealing with him.”
There's more: China now feels they'll be able to move forward aggressively into further reaches of the Pacific because of Trump's scrapping of TPP and instead engaging in a series of bilateral negotiations. 
This strategy means the White House and State Department will be consumed with one at a time trade agreements while China gets one big comprehensive one:
Canada and China are joining a mid-March summit hosted by Chile on how to advance trade in Asia-Pacific now that Donald Trump has pulled the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and ceded leadership in the region.
It’s the first effort to move beyond the rubble of the TPP deal – dead since Washington’s exit – and offers a possible way for Beijing to take the lead on influencing how trade should deepen between the West and Asia
Chilean officials say they have invited all 12 countries that participated in the TPP talks as well as South Korea and China, which did not.

That will include Australia, Japan and Mexico among others. 
I suppose Trump could, in theory, conclude individual trade agreements with these countries simultaneously or in some order. 
But why should they? 
Nothing in it for them as the status quo is just fine. 
Besides, China has already showed them how to deal with Trump: ignore him, wait, dangle the promise of flattery, he will surrender.
American leadership was damaged by Mr. Trump staking out a position and then stepping back, said Hugh White, a professor of strategic studies at the Australian National University and the author of “The China Choice,” a book that argues that the United States should share power in the Pacific region with China.
“The Chinese will see him as weak,” Mr. White said of Mr. Trump. 
“He has reinforced the impression in Beijing that Trump is not serious about managing the U.S.-China relationship.”

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