The People's Republic of China flag and the U.S. Stars and Stripes fly along Pennsylvania Avenue near the U.S. Capitol in Washington during Chinese President Hu Jintao's state visit, January 18, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Hyungwon Kang
James Palmer, Foreign Policy: China Really Isn’t Joking About Taiwan
Beneath Beijing’s seemingly mild criticism of Trump’s phone call are currents of raw, public nationalism the government can’t control.
Tere’s a reason Donald Trump’s impetuous conversation with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has left foreign-policy experts tearing their hair out by the roots. The fussy diplomatic protocols Trump flouted, in this case, are not a mere formality. They are a finely honed coping strategy for Chinese emotions that are very raw and potentially explosive. Although the Chinese reaction has been surprisingly — perhaps hopefully — muted, there is no more sincerely sensitive issue in China, among politicians and the public, than Taiwan.
Taiwan, or the Republic of China, was founded by the fleeing Kuomintang (KMT or “Nationalist Party”), the modernizing but corrupt, authoritarian, and incompetent rulers of China in the 1930s, after they lost the mainland to the Communist Party, the modernizing but corrupt, authoritarian, and incompetent rulers of China from 1949 to the present. They fled to the conveniently defensible island on China’s southern margins, once famous as a haven for pirates and later a Japanese colony.
Read more ....
Update: Beijing grits teeth in face of Trump's tweets (The Guardian)
WNU Editor: The Chinese have always been nationalistic .... but what I have seen in just the past few years is unprecedented .... and in many ways it has been nurtured by the central government to divert people's attention away from the country's economic problems and the imbalance between those who are doing well .... and those who are not. In regards to Taiwan ..... many Chinese regard Taiwan as part of China .... as well as much of the South China Sea an the East China Sea. And in regards to what the people in Taiwan may feel .... or what do the countries that border the South China Sea and the East China Sea may claim .... China's reaction has always been the same .... derision, threats, and simply using their military to enforce their claims. In regards to the U.S. .... their behaviour has always been predictable. They always pull something off in the first six months after a new U.S. President has been sworn in .... to gauge how he reacts, and to what limits can China push him on issues that are central to China. But the Achilles Heel of China has always been its economy, and the expectations of its population that they will benefit from continued Chinese economic expansion. This is the social contract that the Central Communist party in Beijing has with its people .... and as long as the economy continues to grow .... much of the population will be content with this arrangement. But the problem is that much of this growth has been fuelled by the export of Chinese goods around the world with a devalued currency, while restricting imports via through tariffs and other ridiculous bureaucratic measures. President-elect Trump has made it very clear to the Chinese that "business as usual" is not going to be his policy .... and this in turn has put China in a bind. The Chinese Central government is dependent on running huge trade deficits with the U.S. to fuel its growth .... and no one else can even come close to replacing the U.S. should the China choose to diversify their export markets. And that is the "rub" of it all. Upset the White House .... then expect tariffs and other trade restrictions from the U.S. .... and while it may hurt certain businesses and make the cost of Chinese products more expensive for Americans .... people will adjust their spending habits and other countries and companies will step in. But for the Chinese .... they would have lost their number one export market .... and for an economy that is already experiencing severe debt and financial mismanagement problems .... this will hurt them hard. My prediction still holds .... they will bite their tongue and take it .... and they are not going to test President-elect Trump when he is in the White House .... they now have a very good idea on who and what he is.
0 Response to "China Is Seething Over President-Elect Trump's Recent Tweets On China"
Post a Comment