by Erik Wallbank
The US practices Russophobia along with Iranophobia. Western media does not report circumspectly on either nation. Neither Russia nor Iran is ever given a fair shake. It’s the same with China. To be a China media expert you must first be anti-China. Most of what we hear about China is US state-sponsored propaganda. What are the facts about China? Actual facts, that on American media we would not encounter?
The US, at the time of WWI, bested Britain as the biggest economy. To do that took 100 years. In the late 1990s China was one of the poorer nations in the world. But by 2017 China was the top industrialized nation in the world. How or why did that happen? With the death of Mao the new leader, Deng, recognized China as needing to industrialize so he put aside his lifelong commitment to communism to create a balance between a public and private partnership. But China today remains a socialist nation . . . make no mistake.
Deng made public the land (it could not be owned by individuals – only leased). Banks were state owned to better distribute funds (loans) to businesses that would re-industrialize. Banks, intel, communication, energy, transportation were owned publicly. China kept public the most important economic pieces (SOE – State-Owned Enterprises). The rest was private. For the US China’s economy is misunderstood because the US hardly recognizes public/private partnerships in support of the real economy.
In China, stock markets haven’t moved up noticeably in 20 years. The US markets are up 6 fold. The reason? Businesses in China get their funding from government owned banks. In China there’s no reason for government to prop up their stock markets. China is the best example of a public/private partnership in the world today. Possibly half of the Chinese economy is controlled by the state. Before we point the finger at the ‘commies’ know that China’s model differs from the Soviet Union. It’s possibly closer to the model that made Japan an economic powerhouse – or early US economic policies.
Alexander Hamilton (father of the Treasury) was a US proponent of government tariffs to protect fledgling US industries from being cannibalized on the world stage. Now Americans (to some degree myself) buy into the notion that all that’s needed for businesses to be able to start-up and prosper is less state regulation. That’s no longer the case. The myth that China adopted capitalism and became prosperous is false. Neoliberal, capitalist, cronyism has brought the West closer to bankruptcy while China’s public/private partnership model has lifted 800 million Chinese out of poverty.
According to the World Bank China is the reason 3/4s of world’s population got out of poverty over 3 decades. These stats rub the West (including myself) the wrong way. But facts are facts – prior to 1990 Chinese life expectancy was 32 years, now it’s 79. Whether we like it or not China has more concern for its people than does the US. And China, our great adversary, is viewed across the globe with less suspicion, and as being more cooperative, than the US.
The Belt and Road initiative, purposed to move trade over land rather than by sea (away from Western naval power), is likely unstoppable. China’s economy, replete with problems, focuses on industrialization and manufacturing as a means to sustain China’s population. With the public/private partnership model firmly in place there’s little possibility China goes the way of the US’s rentier, crony capitalism and fiancialization. Chinese billionaire oligarchs who steer China towards financial rentierism are subject to severe penalties – including death.
Not long ago Elon Musk laughed at China’s auto industry – now it’s bigger than Tesla. Tesla (Musk), with half its vehicles built in China, wants 100% tariffs on Chinese cars. Given the tariff wars, what’s going on with/tariffs? What’s with the tariff pause? Is it similar to a Fed pause from raising rates when it’s obvious we have reached the breaking point? It was Japan selling off treasuries that made for the tariff pause not China matching our tariffs. When Jamie Dimon and Bill Ackman asked for a 90 day tariff pause they got it.
The economy functions on math, not PR, and the US needs to keep interest rates under control. Mortgage rates rise, homes cost more . . . everything comes under attack. To make a plan to industrialize a nation has to be concerned with welfare of the people, more than rhetorically. US GDP is all smoke and mirrors. Everything imaginable is included to make the US economy appear larger than China, including weapons. Tariffs, if not taken seriously, can ruin the economy. Trump’s 12 billionaire oligarchs stand to lose big on tariffs, causing the US to become even more dependent on China. Is there a plan for the US to re-industrialize, or is it made up, minute by minute? Is it enough to gloat to billionaires in the Oval Office – how one made $2.2 billion in 1 day, another $900 million? Did elites get an early warning that tariff pause was in the offing?
Interest on US debt is 3% of GDP, about the same as the military budget that looks to top $1T. The only hope for the US economy is to come to terms with adversaries to cut defense spending. While there is a new glimmer of hope with Trump in communication with Xi and Putin, Trump’s written demands on Iran push towards regime change. The best outcome would be Trump playing at brinkmanship, but we soon get to see the backs of Kellogg, Waltz and Rubio. Trump’s portrayal as a mentally compromised gunslinger is just a play-act, he has not bought into a Zionist plan to attack Iran. Without US restraint Persia might again become a graveyard for the West. One wrong, big, move from Trump shows US plans for destabilizing and sectioning Russia to have backfired. Instead of Russia coming apart, with our puppet installed, it will the the West that breaks up. Europe will again be reduced to its component parts – in bloody civil war.
If tariffs and war bring down the US how and what is that going to look like? The US is in a race with itself, between consciousness and Armageddon. At home we are hopelessly divided, at a time when we need unity. There can be no public/private partnership where there is no trust. If the US comes apart it will be over free speech not being recognized. Human liberty and dignity depends on free speech. The 2nd Amendment protects the 1st. The 4th assures freedom from the state, guaranteed by the 1st. The 5th guarantees judicial recourse. Meanwhile . . . China watches.
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