Academics proclaim that in tariff wars there are no winners, all economies fell. True, but the current “war” is not about economics, as it started out to be, but a personal vendetta by US president Trump against China’s president Xi Jinping.
Trump started the war by imposing trade tariffs against all of its trading partners. There were no exceptions, even for those, like Hong Kong and Australia, who had deficits with the US.
Even though Hong Kong is a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in its own right, Trump lumped Hong Kong under the broader China umbrella and imposed tariff hikes totalling 145 per cent against all products exported to the US. The rest of the world faced a base-line levy of 10 per cent. And this is where Trump’s plan became personal.
Trump’s plan was for the world to kowtow to him and acknowledge that he was the world’s leader. Most did, although there has not been any announcement of any deal being struck anywhere. And then came China’s Xi Jinping, who refused to kowtow, vowing to “fight to the end” and upped the ante of tariffs on US goods imported into the mainland.
Economies were floundering and markets were weak. Trump took advantage of the low market and after announcing exemptions for his billionaire club, while the rest of the population suffered, it appeared that he had made a deliberate gesture to manipulate the stock markets by declaring a 90-day pause in the tariffs. “Be cool” Trump wrote just hours before announcing the pause. “This is a great time to buy!” This was white collar terrorism in plain sight.
Global markets rose rapidly with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange up 51.17 per cent. But that bottomed out the following day amid rumors Trump was to declare martial law to police the southern border with Mexico.
The manoeuvre could have been taken from his book “How to make a deal”. Except it is not his book as he often boasts. The book was written by ghost writer Tony Schwartz who wrote in The New Yorker “Trump’s tweet that he has written bestselling books is one more deceit and delusion. He is incapable of reading a book, much less writing one.”
While Trump sits in the Oval Office contemplating how he can outsmart Xi, the Chinese president has been busy shoring up free trade deals in Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia. In all three South East Asian countries he was warmly greeted as a dear friend. Of the three, Vietnam is the hardest hit with a 43 per cent tax on its exports to the US.
Trump’s racist slurs against all things Chinese were compounded during the trade war when he threatened to delist Hong Kong and mainland stocks from all US exchanges – the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and NYSE American. It is estimated there are 286 mainland and Hong Kong stocks with a market capitalization of US$1.1 trillion listed in the US.
And again, Trump has miscalculated his “punishment.” All companies delisted in the US will simply come to Hong Kong as their secondary and dual primary listing to raise funds and boost our Initial Public Offering (IPO) market.
Hong Kong’s financial secretary, Paul Chan Mo Po, is bullish about the outcome of the war, with Hong Kong becoming stronger as a leading fundraising hub and with enhanced trade ties with the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions.
But Trump is not stopping there and he’s trying every possible means to curtail China’s position on the world stage. After taking over control of the Panama Canal to tax mainland and Hong Kong ships passing through the waterway, he now plans to tax every ship made in China, regardless of its registration, when they visit US ports.
The actions by Trump have done more harm to himself than to the countries he targeted. In the eyes of world leaders, he cannot be trusted and trading with him in the future will be for essentials only. The harm he has done to his country will take years to repair, and those who voted for him will surely be more prudent when the next elections come about. He has failed miserably with his campaign policy to “Make America Great Again.” He has done exactly the opposite.
Mark Pinkstone
** The blog article is the sole responsibility of the author and does not represent the position of our company. **
So, US President Donald Trump is going to ask China to release former media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, currently facing sedition and collusion charges in Hong Kong, during the trade negotiation talks in Switzerland this weekend, according to international news agency, Reuters.
There is little chance of that ever happening. In the whole scheme of world conflicts and international trade negotiations, the trial of a Hong Kong man on sedition charges pales into insignificance. Just a leaf in a tea cup. And even if it did come up during the hard talk negotiations, the Chinese side will simply ignore it.
British-based Reuters boasts a readership of more than one billion people a day and is used by some 750 television broadcasters covering 115 countries. Yes, it does have reach and is influential. But it is also biased, like most of the western media towards China and Hong Kong.
Indeed, the Reuters release was picked up by most of the world’s media. Bloomberg quoted Trump from the release’s account of a radio interview: “I think talking about Jimmy Lai is a very good idea. We’ll put it down and we’ll put it as part of the negotiations.”
Trump was responding to a question put by Republican political commentator Hugh Hewitt on his Hughniverse podcast on May 7.
During the negotiations on Hong Kong’s future in the 1980s, Reuters moved its regional headquarters from Hong Kong to Singapore as it had no faith in Hong Kong’s future. It still doesn’t, even though Hong Kong has fought off adversaries and doomsday prophets with a shield of truth and perseverance. The story of Hong Kong’s triumphs and successes have been retold many times.
Reuters reports: “The trial of Lai – a long-standing critic of the Chinese Communist Party – has shone a spotlight on a sweeping crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong following China’s imposition of a national security law in Hong Kong in 2020.”
The writers, both Hong Kong residents, were in Hong Kong and witnessed the bloody riots that prevailed at the time, but chose to side with the dissidents and their reportage thereafter has been colored by their own emotions. Gone are the days of balanced, unbiased reporting, especially with such a reputable news organization.
But the story is continually fuelled by Lai’s son, Sebastien and his public relations team of barristers at Doughty Street Chambers in London.
On World Press Freedom Day last week, Fox News devoted a segment to Sebastien who noted that in 1995 Lai senior founded Apple Daily…which quickly “became a beacon for free speech.” Every Hong Konger knows that Apple Daily was launched on a platform of sex, gossip and more sex. It was a sleaze newspaper, known in the west as the “yellow press.” In its early days it had no political bias. It was not until he ran foul with the Beijing authorities over regulations concerning his Giordano store that his attitude changed towards Beijing and anything relating to authority.
Sebastien summed up his father as “an immigrant who never quite fit in.”
In this final plea, Sebastien sought the release of his father, even before a verdict has been reached in his trial, so that he “can leave Hong Kong and be with his family.”
Lai faces three charges: two counts of collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security and one count of conspiracy to publish a seditious publication.
Jimmy Lai wrapped up his testimony on March 6 after taking the witness stand for 52 days. The trial is set to hear closing arguments on August 14, which are expected to last eight days.
But again, the western press smeared the judiciary before the trial even began. The infamous BBC lauded: “Mr Lai cannot expect a fair trial in today’s Hong Kong…”
It quoted Doughty Street barrister Jonathan Price, a member of Lai’s so-called international legal team saying that the fundamental principle of the rule of law in Hong Kong has eroded and that “everybody knows there’s only going to be one result.”
Mr Price, his colleagues in Doughty Street Chambers and the BBC should be reminded that Hong Kong’s judiciary ranks No.23 out of the 142 jurisdictions in the authoritative World Justice Project last year and even higher ratings in World Economic Forum earlier findings.
