Presidential candidate Donald Trump invited Chinese electric carmakers to enter the US market—as long as they made the China-designed cars in America.
This would be a stark contrast to the Biden-Harris system of keeping the popular clean-energy cars out of the country by slapping a 100 per cent surcharge on them.
BANKERS INTRIGUED
The Trump plan has investment bankers intrigued.
"If acted upon, this would be a revolutionary change in the US-China trade relationship," said Marko Papic Chief Strategist at BCA Research.
"First, it would separate national security concerns from trade, adjusting US trade policy to the realities of a global multipolar environment. Second, it would resolve the trade dispute using tried and tested policies from the 1980s."
The strategist was referring to a period when Japan was the world's leading carmaker and was coerced into building its vehicles on US soil.
INVITATION INCLUDES THREAT
Trump has repeated the offer to Chinese carmakers several times, although it has had little coverage in the mainstream media, since it doesn't fit the narrative.
In March this year, he said: “If they want to build a plant in Michigan, in Ohio, in South Carolina, they can, using American workers, they can."
The offer was repeated last month in a convention speech, but in keeping with his tough guy image, a threat was included. "We don’t mind it happening but plants will be built in the United States and our people are going to man those plants. And if they don’t agree with us, we’ll put a tariff of approximately 100 to 200 percent on each car and they will be unsellable in the United States."
US CAR MAKERS NEED CHINA I.P.
Of course, all politicians make promises that fail to turn into actions. Yet Trump has made this offer repeatedly, and the electric car issue is not going to go away, so something will have to be done about it. Geely, BYD, Chery and other Chinese firms are enjoying remarkable sales growth in multiple countries.
There would be other advantages too, including IP transfer from China to the United States carmakers: In America, Tesla is over-dominant (51% of the electric market) and the Big Three car firms (13% between them) do need some creative input.
Would China consider accepting the deal? Probably yes. It has shown repeatedly that making trade deals overseas is the country's superpower.
WAY OUT OF TOXIC POLITICS
But more importantly, the offer shines a light on an unexamined difference between the two political parties in the United States.
The hyper-politicized Biden-Harris administration is controlled by the security establishment (call it the blob or the swamp or whatever), which gives an insanely paranoid military-intelligence quadrant the final yea or nay to every deal involving China.
Trump, for all his faults, is showing that a business deal can be handled as a business deal. This is something that China, and indeed all of Asia, can understand.
Trade is often beneficial, while US geo-politics is now always toxic.
Yet the Chinese should not make the mistake of thinking that Trump is friendly towards them. In the same speech that he invited them to build factories in the United States, Trump said: "If you go back 20, 25 years they’ve stolen, going to China and Mexico, about 68 percent of our auto industry. Manufacturing jobs. We’re going to get them all back. We’re going to get them all back, every single one of them."
His motivation sounds less like a hope for a win-win deal, and more like revenge.
by Nury Vittachi
Lai See(利是)
** The blog article is the sole responsibility of the author and does not represent the position of our company. **
London just dropped a classic good news, bad news bombshell on Hong Kong BNO holders.
The headline grabber? The path to permanent residency remains a five-year trek—the so-called "5+1" deal is safe. But here is the kicker: to actually cross the finish line, applicants must now survive a gauntlet of "extra spicy" new conditions. We are talking tougher English tests, strict income floors, and proof of continuous tax payments.
Think of it as a mouthful of sugar followed by a shot of hot chili. The anxiety on the ground is palpable. The South China Morning Post cites a survey warning that nearly 30 percent of these migrants do not meet the new bar. Unless London blinks, thousands will be screened out at the doorstep, leaving them empty-handed after five wasted years. Agitated Hong Kong people in UK are scrambling with petitions, but make no mistake: for the British government, utility is the only metric that matters.
Survey Warning: 30% of Hong Kong BNO holders fall short of London's new "permanent residence" rules and face being screened out at the finish line.
Here is the bait-and-switch: getting the visa was easy, but staying is going to cost you. Previously, income checks were nonexistent. Now, the rules have tightened: you need a fixed job, a tax record, and an annual haul of at least £12,570 (HK$128,000) for three to five years. That might sound low, but for many Hong Kong BNO holders, it is a high wall to climb. Not everyone is punching the clock in a full-time gig.
The SCMP-cited survey breaks it down. Of the 690 interviewed: 19 percent are housewives, 8 percent are retirees, and 3 percent are students. That is 30 percent of the total population right there. No job, no income, no tax record. If the Home Office sticks to the letter of the law, this entire group is going to fail the assessment cold.
Even the working class is standing on shaky ground. The data shows that only 42 percent of respondents have full-time jobs, while another 20 percent are scraping by with part-time work. Do the math: stable, salaried Hong Kong BNO holders are not the majority. Many are hustling in "casual work," where income fluctuates wildly and often falls short of the new government mandates.
Speak to anyone on the ground, and they will tell you the housewife trap is real. Families move over with young kids, find they can’t hire help, and suddenly the mother is housebound. It is a forced choice. Even if they pick up part-time shifts to help make ends meet, those meager earnings inevitably miss the strict income targets London has set.
The Wealth Illusion
Then there are the cash-rich, income-poor migrants. These are the folks who sold their Hong Kong properties at the peak, sitting on millions of dollars to fund a quiet life in the UK. Some are retired; others just don’t need to work. They are slowly "pinching" their savings to get by. But under these new rules, their wealth is irrelevant. No employment income means no tax record. And no tax record means they are not getting past the gatekeepers.
Smart professionals are also about to get caught in their own loop. I know of Hong Kong BNO holders who aren't unemployed—they are just working "on the sly," taking remote gigs from Hong Kong to dodge UK taxes. It used to be a clever way to save a buck. Now, it is a liability. Without a UK tax footprint or local employment record, they have technically earned nothing in the eyes of the Home Office. When application time comes, they are going to face big trouble.
The education gap is another ticking time bomb. The survey reveals that 16 percent of respondents only have a secondary education. Let’s be realistic: hitting the B2 English level—roughly A-Level standard—is a pipe dream for this demographic. This single hurdle is going to cull a significant herd of applicants before they even get started.
The Language Barrier: With 16% of surveyed migrants holding only secondary education, the "B2 barrier" for English proficiency is set to trigger a wave of failures.
Panic is setting in as families realize they might be kicked out at the last minute. Distressed and confused, Hong Kong BNO holders are mobilizing. A petition demanding the government lower the bar—keeping the easier B1 English requirement and scrapping the income test—has already gathered 28,000 signatures. They are even planning a protest march for December 6.
Utility Over Humanity
London, sensing the rising heat, offered a vague olive branch yesterday. Officials claim the consultation is not yet finalized and teased a potential transitional arrangement. But do not hold your breath—nobody bothered to explain what that transition actually looks like.
Let’s call this what it is: habitual duplicity. When the chips are down, the British government puts utility first. A sharp analysis in Singapore’s Lianhe Zaobao hit the nail on the head: by piling on these conditions, London is downgrading the BNO route from a special humanitarian channel to a high-threshold, ordinary immigration path. It has morphed into a policy demanding economic tribute, not a sanctuary.
The writing is on the wall. Don't expect them to lower the bar for permanent residence. Smart Hong Kong people should know better than to have high expectations.
Lai Ting-yiu
