The stupidity of waging a trade war with China

Will China flounder just because Trump thinks USA still has the clout to  bully each and every nation on our planet?  

Look what happened when Russia was bullied with sanctions and NATO doing the gig on their doorstep. Russia started producing more and mightier WMDs.  That's plain and simple logic.  If you live in a neighbourhood where a horde of new hoodlums have taken up residence at the invitation of the old hoodlums, you know you have to improve your security measures and perhaps even add many a  new gadget to keep those additional crooks away from your front door and your backyard. Russia has now become one of the major WMD suppliers ... all thanks to USA's belligerence and threats of war towards it. Well done America!! 

Bullying China is like pouring water on a duck's back.  It won't work.  If Americans were not so full of themselves and had at least tried to learn a  bit about Asian cultures and pride, they would know that China will  never bend to their will.  China might pretend to, but actually give in?  Never!!  Right now as we speak, there are conferences taking place in Beijing where thousands of business folks have gathered and by the time the event ends, I am willing to bet  there will be trade agreements signed to the tune of Billions of Dollars.  No one, and I mean no one, can deter China from its   onwards march and firmer entrenchment of its status as the new Empire.

Peter Koenig at DissidentVoice
Trump: From China to Iran to Venezuela, Threats and Sanctions Everywhere

A Chronicle of Disorganized Chaos Foretold


As of May 10, Mr. Trump has arbitrarily increased tariffs on Chinese goods imported into the US, worth about 200 billion dollars, from 10% to 25%. It is an action without any foundation. An action that makes no sense at all, as China can and will retaliate – and retaliate much stronger than what the impact of the US’s new “sanctions” may bear – because these arbitrary tariffs are nothing else but sanctions. Illegality of such foreign interference aside, there is hardly any serious economist in this world who would favor tariffs in international trade among “adults” anywhere and for any reason, and, of course, least as a punishment for a nation. All that such sanctions do is pushing a partner away. In this case it’s not just any partner; China is a key trading partner of the United States.

The new tariffs will hardly harm the American consumer. There are huge profit margins by US middlemen and importers of Chinese goods. They are competing with each other within the US  and the consumer may not even notice a thing. However, the US economy will likely suffer, especially from Chinese retaliatory actions.

A spoiled child, what Trump is, doesn’t get his way – and goes into a tantrum, not quite knowing what he is doing, and knowing even less what he may expect in return. Mr. Trump, himself, has not only reached a level of incompetence and ignorance which is scary – but he has also surrounded himself with inept, preposterous people, like, Pence, Bolton, Pompeo – who, it appears, have no other means left than running around the world amok, dishing out threats left and right and spending billions on moving aircraft carriers around the globe to make sure people are afraid of the great-great United States of America.

Back to trading with China. China has a million ways (almost) to retaliate. China can devalue her currency vis-à-vis the dollar, or China can dump some of their almost 3 trillion dollars-worth of reserves on the money market – just take a wild guess about what that would do to the hegemony of the dollar which is already in dire straits – with ever more countries departing from the use of dollars for international trade......