THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
nationthailand

Debunking Donald Trump’s ‘rape by China’ rhetoric  

Debunking Donald Trump’s ‘rape by China’ rhetoric  

I was delighted to watch CCTV Network Liu Xin challenge Fox News presenter Tris Regan’s baseless report on China’s trade practice.

Wherever Donald Trump campaigns, he tells his audience that China is “raping” (I honestly don’t have a clue why he uses such a word) the United States with a huge trade deficit while also stealing US jobs. Like father, like son, commentators from pro-Trump media such as Fox News and CNBC repeat the same irresponsible rhetoric when they talk about China’s trade policy.
But let us look at the truth. In the late 1970s and ’80s, rising costs prompted many American companies to close down their manufacturing facilities and move overseas. At that time China was opening its door to foreign investments under Deng Xiaoping’s “Four Modernisations” plan. As a result, factories began mushrooming along the South China coast. American companies were able to utilise cheap Chinese labour and buy cheap imported items. Often the imported merchandise was marked up five to 10 times, creating a huge consumer-based domestic economy and flourishing retail giants like Apple, Nike, and Walmart. 
When I was studying overseas, I remember visiting a friend of my father’s during a holiday in Boston, in the winter of 1975. He took me to his half-empty factory making leather clothing and told me that he would close it down and buy from the Far East instead. He did just that. A few years’ later when I met him again, he had sold his factory, was buying all his goods from China and the Philippines, and had expanded his sales.
So China has not stolen any jobs from America. The Americans have chosen to buy from China and other developing countries. As China’s living standards and wages rise, some Chinese-made goods are no longer competitive in price. Many American buyers had shifted to buying goods from countries like Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia even before the current trade war started. Will Trump and his media supporters soon start accusing these countries of raping the US too? That would be gang rape, God forbid!
Yingwai Suchaovanich

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