While I agree with the editors of the Washington Post that the Biden Administration should take the right lesson from globalization:
BETWEEN THE fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the global pandemic of 2020, the global population grew from 5.2 billion to 7.7 billion. Yet the share living in extreme poverty fell from more than a third to less than 10 percent, according to the World Bank. In other words, hundreds of millions of premature deaths were avoided and a similar number of opportunities for human flourishing were created. While China accounted for much of the progress, World Bank data show that poverty fell at similar rates elsewhere. Not coincidentally, this colossal achievement occurred during three decades of U.S.-endorsed trade liberalization, which brought investment, jobs and income to previously destitute corners of the world.
We reiterate these facts to rebalance the debate over globalization, which is at risk of being won by those who view free trade one-sidedly as a job-destroying disaster for American workers. Alas, Biden administration foreign policy pronouncements this week show how much influence this critique has gained over both political parties.
but somehow they neglect to outline what the right lesson would be. I can tell you what I wish they would learn: China is in a class by itself. There is no other country that is that large, as authoritarian as China, or as dedicated to mercantilist policies that treat trade as a zero sum game.
They also somehow fail to mention that China is presently engaged in cyberwarfare against the U. S. That’s surprising since it’s one of the biggest stories of the day.
The CCP could shoot someone in the middle of Tiananmen square and not be blamed. What gives them the Teflon coating?
They are mercantilist, expansionist, racist, misogynist, anti-immigrant, yellow supremacists, dismissive of gay and transgender rights and probably genocidal fascists.
No calls for boycotts of products, investment, or even bans on them buying US companies. Who are we fooling? We’re not against any of what they stand for, if it profits us.
Khrushchev said it, we’ll buy the rope.
The problem is that it’s only profiting us for a very narrow definition of “us”. Consumers capture very little of the surplus from buying products made in China. Something like 10% of the surplus.
Ordinary American workers aren’t capturing much from the surplus, either—they’ve either lost their jobs or their wages have been pretty constant.