Historians and pundits have often said America owned the 20th Century and that if not careful, China would come to own the 21st. Well China has been resolutely working towards that end while cornering the market on rare earths, raw materials in third world countries, enhancing their position in the South China Sea and of course becoming the manufacturer to the world.
But in four short months, President Donald Trump handed them the golden keys to the century.
First by pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership…the Pacific rim economic trade agreement that included every one EXCEPT CHINA…putting the US pretty much in the lead. But now all of those potential partners will look for other avenues of growth and protection from the rising power of China…but many may succumb to the economic reality that China will fill the void left by the US. If we had one strong hand in containing the Chinese manufacturing and economic dragon…the TPP was the wild card.
And then today, pulling out of the Paris Agreement on climate change and joining Syria and Nicaragua as the only nations not participants. And who’s going to fill that vacuum? In the long run…and China is expert at playing the long game…China although Germany and France and certainly India will give them a run for their money. Certainly the Paris Agreement would cause some economic pain in the US initially but eventually we would develop a whole new industry and new jobs to replace those lost.
Overall President Trump has created two power vacuums on two fronts and China to totally poised to take our place on those world stages. So lost jobs in the coal industry won’t be the undoing of the United States economy…it will be President Trump’s ‘take my ball and go home’ strategy that does us in.
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