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QINGDAO TODAY
在线翻译:
szdaily -> Opinion -> 
Trump can fool nobody except himself
    2019-08-19  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

Wu Guangqiang

jw368@163.com

NOTHING can better illustrate than a Chinese parable the situation where Trump initially frightened many people with his “lethal weapon” of tariffs and later made himself an object of mockery when his “art of the deal” proved useless and self-injuring.

In ancient times, a donkey was brought to Guizhou, where there were no donkeys. A tiger, which had never seen one before, thinking that it must be a fearsome monster, was scared when the strange animal brayed and kicked. After a while, however, when the tiger found the vicious-looking animal was capable of nothing but braying and kicking, it jumped on the donkey and ate it.

Calling himself “tariff man,” Trump has an obsession with tariffs, constantly claiming that tariffs are a great thing that will help him easily achieve whatever objectives that can’t be achieved by other means. On March 22, 2018, he “decisively” announced he would slam 10 percent tariffs on US$50 billion worth of Chinese goods, and later “adroitly” escalated the tariff warfare by increasing the rates and amount of the taxed goods to 25 percent and US$250 billion respectively in the belief that China, like other previous victims of U.S. bullying, would soon give in.

To go whistling past the graveyard, he kept bragging about the windfall of billions of dollars from tariffs (which he insisted was paid by Chinese) and the devastation inflicted on the Chinese economy because of the trade war. In a recent TV interview, he even claimed that the trade war had cost China a total loss of US$1.5 to 2 trillion in the economy, though China’s annual GDP in 2018 was about US$13 trillion.

Admittedly, Trump’s bravado took much of the world off guard and scared many in China out of their wits. Some “knowledgeable” people in China openly appealed to surrender to the U.S. in the trade war, because China was too weak to confront the powerful nation. An unscrupulous professor even said he preferred to surrender in a very standard posture now rather than kneel down in surrender later.

In the U.S., Trump also had many believers when he boasted about a quick win in the trade war against China; after all, who would doubt Trump’s promise to bring back manufacturing and reduce the trade deficit?

But what happened later deviated drastically from his script. Despite the significant drop in U.S.-China trade volume, U.S. deficits are getting bigger while China’s exports to other parts of the world are expanding.

Some journalists paid a recent visit to Yiwu in Zhejiang Province, the world’s largest small commodity production and wholesale center, and found that local businesses felt little impact from U.S. tariffs, citing three chief factors. First, it’s U.S. importers that are bearing most of the tariffs, and since most Chinese goods are irreplaceable, U.S. importers still have to buy them despite higher prices. Second, businesses can easily find some ways to avoid the tariffs, such as breaking a large order into small ones. Third, Chinese businesses are seeking to diversify their sales markets. For instance, markets along the Belt and Road routes are rapidly emerging to absorb goods originally sold to the U.S.

So by now, few people in China are taking Trump’s bravado seriously anymore. The same is true of Americans. Browsing U.S. websites, I see an overwhelming majority of views against the tariffs. Most people aired strong indignation against U.S. politicians’ lies.

Here are a few quotes from among thousands of similar comments:

“If China is paying the tariffs, not the American public, why Trump is so desperate wanting to meet Xi to make a trade deal with China?”

“Another spin folks. Meet the new Sarah Huckleberry Sanders, Peter Navarro. Tariffs are increased costs passed on to the USA consumer. Eventually the consumer is squeezed to the point of stop buying altogether. Then China slows down, USA slows down, the world slows down. Frankly I hope Trump raises tariffs and stifles growth. Then when his voters see the #$%$ hit their bank accounts maybe they will wake up and realize they have been duped.”

“No alternative facts, higher prices is the result: We buy, we pay.”

It would be wise of Trump to cut the crap of tariffs.

(The author is an English tutor and freelance writer.)

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