Facing the aggressiveness of the United States to escalate the trade war, China recently announced countermeasures, imposing tariffs on $75 billion of goods originating in the United States. And U.S. President Trump's reaction was similar to that of a Texas Holdem player who continued to add chips to the table, trying to force his opponent to fold and admit defeat. He once again made a surprising statement. In addition to threatening to raise tariffs across the board on $500 billion of Chinese goods exported to the United States, he also urged American companies to withdraw from China and return to China as soon as possible.
Blocking Chinese manufacturing and making American factories great again is a highly provocative political slogan on the occasion of the U.S. election, but the ideal is full and the reality is very skinny. The industry chain will not be able to change in an instant just because of a slogan. There is also a growing number of rational voices in U.S. politics and business against the chaos and uncertainty brought about by the trade war.
A few days ago, a documentary "American Factory" invested by former US President Barack Obama was officially launched on the mainstream media Netflix (Netflix). Produced by an American independent filmmaker, the film took 1,200 hours of original footage over three years to truly and objectively record the twists and turns of the Chinese company Fuyao's investment and construction of an auto glass factory in Ohio, USA. A theme of "Made in China goes overseas, American factories return" is particularly eye-catching in the current era.
Ohio belongs to the rust belt of American industry, and the new factory of Fuyao Glass was converted from the abandoned factory of General Motors of the United States. Fuyao also employs a large number of local workers abandoned by GM. However, this glass manufacturing enterprise, which ranks second in the world and is profitable every year, is due to the differences in culture, system and ideology between China and the United States, as well as the majority of American management and workers. Not adapting, fell into the vicious circle of "orders but no output", resulting in losses for up to three years.
With the replacement of American management, the integration of the concepts of Chinese and American workers, and the introduction of more intelligent robots by Chinese investors to replace production line employees, Fuyao America achieved profitability in 2018. The factory currently has 2,200 American workers and 200 workers. Chinese workers. It seems like a perfect ending, but these workers in American factories are still facing the unemployment crisis of being replaced by robots. It is estimated that by 2030, 375 million people in the world will lose their original jobs due to intelligence and data.
Through the perspective of Americans, the film expounds the fundamental reasons for the formation of the division of labor in the global industrial chain: capital, talent, technology and other production factors flow around the world in pursuit of maximizing profits, and the manufacturing process must occur in those places that can be completed at the lowest cost. Therefore, the rise and fall of American factories cannot simply be attributed to the strength of Chinese manufacturing. The populist programs of some politicians may appeal to certain classes, but fail to provide solutions to the long-term structural problems of the global economy.
In the early days of World War II, Mao Zedong, the first-generation leader of China, put forward the famous "On Protracted War" in response to the offensive of the powerful Japanese army at that time. From 2018, when China and the United States began to impose punitive tariffs on each other, to "Made in China 2025", it is also an eight-year time span. The Sino-US trade dispute must be a "protracted war" with far-reaching impact on the world economy.
China has formed a national consensus to fight a "protracted war" from top to bottom. Chinese Vice Premier Liu He expressed his position at the Chongqing Smart Expo, opposing the escalation of the trade war that is not beneficial to people all over the world. At the same time, the Chinese government can ensure China's economic development. The fundamentals are in good shape.
The clouds come to the mountains better, and the clouds go to the mountains are picturesque. The mountains are dark and bright because of the clouds, and the clouds are high and low. This famous line by Zhang Yanghao, a Chinese Yuan Dynasty composer, hangs in the form of calligraphy in the Shanghai venue of the 12th round of Sino-US trade negotiations. Whether it is purely coincidental or carefully arranged in detail, this song is appropriately and appropriately depicted. It shows the current situation of the Sino-US trade war and the calm and calm attitude of Chinese decision-makers.
Shan, on behalf of China, has gone through 12 rounds of high-level Sino-US economic and trade consultations for more than a year, and China has firmed up its position of safeguarding its own political and economic interests. Cloud, representing the United States. The relationship between mountains and clouds is that when there are clouds, the clouds set off the majesty of the mountains; when there are no clouds, the mountains are equally magnificent and picturesque. Mountains and clouds are a relationship that reflects and achieves each other. Such oriental cultural wisdom, I wonder if Trump can comprehend it?
==The author is a partner of a corporate group in the Asia-Pacific region. This article was first published in Singapore's "Lianhe Zaobao"==
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