By Donna Westfall – December 6, 2016
Credit to Ben Carson News – December 6, 2016 –
When you shop at WalMart and check the labels on products, have you noticed how many items are made in China?
This happens because America is buying more product than its selling. It gets down to economics. Jobs and manufacturing that we used to be famous for have flown the coop for cheaper labor. China has a huge, cheap labor force.
The U.S. trade deficit with China was $365.7 billion in 2015. The trade deficit exists because U.S. exports to China were only $116.2 billion while imports from China hit a new record high of $481.9 billion. This is huge. If we keep going in this direction, China will soon own the US.
How do we turn that around? By importing and exporting more to other countries and decreasing the amount imported from China.
After World War ll, Japan and Taiwan (formerly Formosa) became exporters of cheaper goods to the US while China went Communistic. However, in 1979, the US broke off official relations with Taiwan, but have maintained “unofficial” relations.
On December 2nd this year, Facebook contained posts about Trump talking to the President of Taiwan. In fact, former GOP senator and presidential nominee Bob Dole, was instrumental in arranging the call from Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen to President-elect Trump. “Dole told the (Wall Street) Journal the law firm he’s affiliated with does work with the Taipei (Capital of Taiwan) Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States – and that the firm played a role in arranging the phone call.
Brief history lesson:
Keep in mind that relations between Taiwan and China have been strained since the late 1940’s. This gets back to General Chiang Kai-shek ruling mainland China from 1925 to 1946. He wanted to focus on reform but instead energies were spent battling communism. The short story is he lost his battle when the Allies declared war on Japan in 1941, China took its place among the Big Four. Civil war broke out in 1946, ending in a victory by Mao Zedong’s Communist forces and the creation of the People’s Republic of China.
Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan with the remnants of his Nationalist government, taking over that country and running it for 50 years. Backed by American aid, Chiang launched Taiwan on the path of economic modernization, and in 1955 the United States signed an agreement guaranteeing Taiwan’s defense. Many countries continued to recognize Chiang’s government in exile as the legitimate Chinese government, and it would control China’s seat in the United Nations until Chiang’s death.
In 1979, four years after Chiang died, the United States broke off diplomatic relations with Taiwan and established full relations with the People’s Republic of China.
So, what appears as a simple phone call between Pres.-elect Trump and Pres Tsai Ing-wen (Tsai) of Taiwan may be construed as making an appearance of a thaw between the US and Taiwan and may put China-US relations into an adversarial role.
In terms of protocol, Madame Pres Tsai-Ing-wen, made the call to Trump and congratulated him on his win. But the call lasted 12 minutes.
Trump has made it quite clear that his top priority is the US economy. From Ben Carson News: “Tsai had a prepared set of talking points and was surrounded by Taiwan’s foreign minister, David Lee, as well as two top National Security Council officials and her spokesman, Alex Huang, the Journal reported.”
It will be fascinating to see if Trump manages to pull off increasing economic trade with Taiwan and avoiding a major conflict with China.
Population of China – 2015 figures approximately 1.4 billion.
Population of USA – 2016 figures approximately 325 million.
In terms of world military strength, out of 126 countries, the US is rated #1 and China rated #3.
