Trade Deficit Provides China With More Than Economic Advantages

TradeAlert.org ^ | Friday, July 18, 2003 | William R. Hawkins

[Regulator]

Soon the "Republicans" will be in here telling us that deficits are good, huge deficits are even better, things are fine, China is a wonderful place, blah blah...not to worry, prosperity is just around the corner.

Should be thrilling to read. Not...

[raybbr]

I don't know what to say anymore about this subject.

Just imagine what our country would be like if we had a $500 billion dollar trade surplus?!?!?!

[WRhine]

Indeed, if economic troubles can bring "a near collapse of the social and political order" would it not be to Beijing's benefit to see the assertive President George W. Bush defeated for reelection in 2004?

The only place where I disagree with the author is the above. It was Bush that approved China for MFN Trade status and his administration's trade policies since day one have been exceedingly beneficial to China (to say the least)...as the numbers so painfully show.

I don't think the PRC leadership would want to risk the great thing they have going with Bush with the uncertainty that another president naturally brings. Even a democrat.

China will bide their time, like they always do, and wait until our country has lost so much of its industry and economic independence that we can no longer effectively counter their global ambitions. To be sure, we are not all that many years away from this.

[RockyMtnMan]

"No wonder the individual income tax cuts that have been the center of Bush Administration recovery efforts have had so little effect. The money is being spent on imports to create jobs in foreign lands, not America."

Now where have we seen this before? Sounds like globalisation is in the Democrats best interest.

[FITZ]

Yeah ---and how Americans don't need jobs.

[junta]

Till they have a fleet of ICBMs that can reach all of the USA in sufficient numbers to scare the hell out of the voters beyond LA.

[arete]

Soon the "Republicans" will be in here telling us that deficits are good, huge deficits are even better, things are fine, China is a wonderful place, blah blah...not to worry, prosperity is just around the corner.

Yeah, I have to laugh at some of the things they come up with like increasing unemployment is good cause it is of a sign things will be getting better; or, record levels of consumer debt shows that people have confidence in the future. Yikes. You just can't make this stuff up!

Richard W.

[Sonny M]

Soon the "Republicans" will be in here telling us that deficits are good, huge deficits are even better, things are fine, China is a wonderful place, blah blah...not to worry, prosperity is just around the corner.

Soon?

[arete]

Yeah ---and how Americans don't need jobs.

Greenspan said this week that we basically don't need manufacturing and if that is now the accepted line of thought, I think that we are in very big trouble.

Richard W.

[Perseverando]

" In the seminal Chinese treatise on modern strategy Unrestricted War by People's Liberation Army Colonels Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui published in 1999, the ongoing financial crisis is compared to military conflict: "Economic prosperity that once excited the constant admiration of the Western world changed to a depression, like the leaves of a tree that are blown away in a single night by the autumn wind. After just one round of fighting, the economies of a number of countries had fallen back ten years. What is more, such a defeat on the economic front precipitates a near collapse of the social and political order. The casualties resulting from the constant chaos are no less than those resulting from a regional war."

It is also argued in Unrestricted War that to attack another country's economy, the aggressor "must adjust its own financial strategy, use currency revaluation or devaluation as primary, and combine means such as getting the upper hand in public opinion and changing the rules sufficiently to make financial turbulence and economic crisis appear in the targeted country or area, weakening its overall power, including its military strength." As the weak American economy contributes to rising budget deficits, it becomes more difficult to provide the funds to modernize or expand the overstretched U.S. military, or to pay for overseas combat operations, or to finance national building in places like Iraq and Afghanistan."

[Regulator]

You just can't make this stuff up!

The things I hear now out of the mouths of people who allegedly know better are so bizarre that I think I got zapped into an alternate reality where all the polarity's have been reversed!

Weird Science: Life in Post-American America.

[Carry_Okie]

Bump to self

[LibertyAndJusticeForAll]

Every paragraph is important.

[hedgetrimmer]

The money is being spent on imports to create jobs in foreign lands, not America.

This has been said on FR over and over again. When will the government start to listen?

Thanks for the ping.

[The Pheonix]

I have been told, time and time, again, that the US is a "post-industrial" Nation/society

Whatever that means.....

[A. Pole]

Greenspan said this week that we basically don't need manufacturing and if that is now the accepted line of thought, I think that we are in very big trouble.

I wonder, what is the trade balance of Argentina over the last decade and what Argentina is exporting and importing?

[harpseal]

Thanks for the heads up. This is an important thread for all.

[harpseal]

I wonder, what is the trade balance of Argentina over the last decade and what Argentina is exporting and importing?

Cacique

Perhaps you can give a detailed answer to this question.

[Jeff Head]

And when China is involved, the dangers are not just commercial. Beijing's strategy to undermine American industry while building up its own manufacturing base also works to shift the balance of power in Asia. So does undermining U.S. finances with the "twin deficits" and beating down neighboring states in trade battles. In the seminal Chinese treatise on modern strategy Unrestricted War by People's Liberation Army Colonels Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui published in 1999, the ongoing financial crisis is compared to military conflict: "Economic prosperity that once excited the constant admiration of the Western world changed to a depression, like the leaves of a tree that are blown away in a single night by the autumn wind. After just one round of fighting, the economies of a number of countries had fallen back ten years."

This is precisely their policy and agenda...and ultimately, it will lead to war.