Stalin’s quip – “How many divisions does the Pope have?” – resonates. The Vatican, sans army, commands the spiritual loyalty of a sixth of humanity. The Catholic Church endures; Stalin’s USSR is history.
This echoes Joseph Nye, the late dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, the ‘soft power’ guru, who passed on May 6th aged 88. In his final commentary published on the Project Syndicate website, Nye lamented America’s dwindling soft power against China’s ascent.
Hard power, Nye argued, is coercion – sticks, carrots, honey. Sticks and carrots? Hard power. Honey? Soft power, rooted in culture, values, and foreign policy. Hard power’s the short-term victor, but soft power wins the long game.
Attraction saves on sticks and carrots. Trusted allies follow your lead; seen as a bully, they minimize ties. Stalin’s Pope jab? A hard power eulogy.
Nye saw Trump’s soft power abandonment coming. Bullying allies like Denmark or Canada erodes trust. Threatening Panama revives Latin American imperial fears. Gutting USAID (Kennedy’s brainchild 1961) tarnishes US benevolence. Gagging Voice of America, gifts for autocrats. Tariffs on friends paint America as unreliable. Suppressing free speech stains its image. The list goes on.
Nye opined that Russia had tanked its soft power after the Ukraine invasion, while China did not hesitate to fill the void created by Trump. Beijing reckons the East is eclipsing the West. If Trump thinks he can undercut allies, cling to imperial dreams, dismantle USAID, silence Voice of America, flout laws, ditch the UN, and still out-compete China, he is delusional. Repairing all the damage he has done is not impossible, but will be at a steep price.
Nye, a Harvard Kennedy School veteran, knew the power of Harvard in peddling US “universal values.” Trump’s moves? An anathema.
Harvard Hammered
Nye didn't live to see Trump's ban on international students. Harvard's battling the Feds. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem (the “Barbie Doll”) called Harvard unsafe, axing its exchange program status. US universities face “anti-Semitism” slurs for allowing free speech on Israeli actions. Columbia buckled, even replacing disliked department heads. Harvard resisted, suing the government. Trump’s retaliation? Revoking Harvard’s right to admit international students.
Destroying Harvard wrecks America's values export. The Chinese are cooling on Hollywood, iPhones, and Teslas. They once admired the Ivy League but never expected America to nuke its own Great Wall.
Habeas Corpus Gutted
Trump’s human rights abuses are shocking. Illegals get shipped to Salvadoran supermax prisons. At a May 20th hearing, Senator Maggie Hassan grilled Secretary Noem on habeas corpus. Noem claimed it's a presidential power to expel people and suspend their rights. Hassan corrected her: Habeas corpus demands the government justify detention—a basic right of individuals that separating free nations from police states like North Korea.
Noem’s habeas corpus take is terrifying – ignorance or malice? Both are grim.
The US Constitution (Article I, Section 9, Clause 2) allows suspending habeas corpus only during rebellion or invasion. Trump’s distortion trashes America’s human rights creed.
Trump loves hard power, plain and simple. His bullying obliterates US soft power. He's Nye's worst nightmare.
Long term? Trump 2.0 is a game-changer for China’s soft power surge.
Lo Wing-hung
Bastille Commentary
** 博客文章文責自負,不代表本公司立場 **
Donald Trump's stint in office unleashed a global tariff war, built on a foundation of economic fallacies that sought to penalize trade partners across the globe. Hong Kong, as a bastion of free trade with minimal tariffs, found itself in the crosshairs, slapped with punitive duties by Washington.
Trump consistently argued that nations enjoying a trade surplus with the US were "cheating and exploiting" America, a narrative he wielded to justify imposing "reciprocal tariffs."
Yet, the reality flips Trump's claims on their head: the US enjoys a substantial trade surplus with Hong Kong. US Trade Representative data from 2024 reveals a US$21.9 billion surplus in Washington's favor. Trump's logic would suggest the US has been "cheating and exploiting" Hong Kong for years. Nonetheless, on April 2, the US declared sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on China, including Hong Kong, ballooning rates to a staggering 145%. Such measures flout WTO regulations and disregard Hong Kong's status as a distinct customs territory, separate from mainland China.
Even with the preliminary trade accord of May 12, which offered a 90-day reprieve on most tariffs, a 30% levy remained on goods from both mainland China and Hong Kong. This move is not just inequitable for Hong Kong; it undermines Trump's own rhetoric of "reciprocity."
《Bastille Post》(巴士的報) commissioned a professional polling agency to conduct a survey to gauge the public’s sentiment on the tariff conflict. Between May 6 and 14, the agency interviewed randomly selected 702 Hong Kong residents over 18 by phone. The poll revealed that: A resounding 79.7% of respondents deemed it unfair for the US to impose high tariffs on Hong Kong, while the US benefits from a trade surplus and faces no tariffs in return. A mere 5.8% found it justifiable.
A clear majority, 72.2%, concurred that Trump's tariff war would inflict severe damage on the global economy, including the US, branding it a self-defeating strategy. Only 13.2% disagreed.
An overwhelming 73.9% denounced Trump's tactics of extracting concessions through tariff threats as blatant bullying. A mere 13.9% dissented.
The Hong Kong public's sentiment is unequivocal: the unilateral tariffs imposed by the US are met with strong disapproval, seen as an act of aggression with counterproductive consequences.
US politicians often posture as champions of Hong Kong, advocating on its behalf. Now, it's time to relay a clear message: nearly 80% of Hong Kong residents vehemently oppose Washington's tariff bullying. If the US truly seeks to represent Hong Kong's voice, it should heed the will of its people.
Central government officials have long exposed the hypocrisy of Washington's stance. On April 15, Xia Baolong – Director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office – condemned the US's imposition of tariffs reaching 145% on tariff-free Hong Kong as "absurd" (this was before the preliminary agreement to reduce tariffs). He highlighted that the US had amassed a US$271.5 billion trade surplus with Hong Kong over the past decade, yet it persisted in levying such tariffs – a display of "sheer arrogance and shamelessness." This underscores that the US cannot bear to see Hong Kong prosper and is the primary force undermining its freedoms, rule of law, and economic stability. The US “isn’t just after our tariffs—it’s after our very lifeblood.”
Xia's words cut to the core: the US, masquerading as a benefactor of Hong Kong, is in reality attempting to suffocate the city. The temporary tariff truce brokered in Geneva on May 12 should not lull anyone into complacency. On the same day, the US Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security moved to revoke some Biden-era export controls on advanced computing semiconductors, but simultaneously issued new AI chip export guidelines, stating that “using Huawei Ascend chips anywhere violates US export control regulations.” Despite minor revisions to the wording, the move was severely condemned by Beijing. The US campaign to contain China continues unabated.
It's no surprise that mainland netizens have wryly dubbed Trump "Chuan Jianguo" – "Trump the Nation Builder", here “Nation” refers to China. The one good thing abut his returning to office is showing the world that the US is a wolf in sheep's clothing, with only its own resurgence in mind. America's constant meddling in Hong Kong affairs is akin to a fox offering New Year's greetings – a facade for ulterior motives. Our poll confirms that Hong Kong people are not fooled: they recognize the bullying nature of the US regime.
