1 hour ago, gearbox said:

 

The economic centre of the world is shifting to North East Asia and Trump is trying to prevent or at least delay the process. Containment.

It has nothing to do with the communism in China, probably the containment would be significantly easier if it wasn't an authoritarian regime country.

 

The main problem is that the North East Asians just study and work harder. There is no substitute for that. Japan, Taiwan, then South Korea, now China and later Vietnam. These countries slowly became the high-tech powerhouses of the world, and the WIPO statistics clearly show the trend. The US is the country to lose most in the shift.

 

Containing Japan was much easier in the eighties,  on top Japan didn't have any military potential. China is completely different story. Much, much larger, with nukes too. And don't forget the bamboo network, which helps to secure the ASEAN markets. 

 

Trump may have had a bit of success if he wasn't sidetracked with irrelevant issues like Iran, or haven't pissed off anyone else with his MAGA stuff. The potential allies would rightfully ask "What is in for me with this MAGA stuff?"

 

IMO the horse has already bolted and the China's containment is not going to work. It has an authoritarian regime, the best type of government they can have at the moment, until their multinationals are strong enough to start buying, not to be bought. 

 

How exactly was Japan contained in the 80's? I got a hint for you. It wasn't. And how do you reconcile that with your characterization of North East Asians? Japanese don't work hard? Really?

In fact the Chinese threat is quite overblown. In a few chosen areas they excel. But it's much more of a top down structure. Like Japan's. Right now, China is approaching being a middle income nation. But there a lots of obstacles to its advancing further. Since Xi took power, the government is steadily encroaching on privately owned businesses. Much of the income produced by the shrinking private sector ends up being spent on propping up zombie corporations in the private sector.

21 hours ago, bristolboy said:

What President announces a major policy decision then reneges on it 2 weeks later? Did Christmas take him by surprise? Does he think that maybe some years it just doesn't happen?

Maybe HE was the Grinch that stole Christmas.

 

 

6 hours ago, mikebike said:

What exactly do bibles have to do with the right to bear arms?

To some they think it’s a gun permit

16 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

How exactly was Japan contained in the 80's? I got a hint for you. It wasn't. And how do you reconcile that with your characterization of North East Asians? Japanese don't work hard? Really?

In fact the Chinese threat is quite overblown. In a few chosen areas they excel. But it's much more of a top down structure. Like Japan's. Right now, China is approaching being a middle income nation. But there a lots of obstacles to its advancing further. Since Xi took power, the government is steadily encroaching on privately owned businesses. Much of the income produced by the shrinking private sector ends up being spent on propping up zombie corporations in the private sector.

Japanese are North East Asians. And work very hard. And were contained...sort of. In the eighties there was an anti-Japanese hysteria similar to the Chinese one now. Tariffs were used. And they were "persuaded" to enforce "voluntary" quotas on their exports, esp cars. The history repeats itself somewhat.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Japanese_sentiment_in_the_United_States

"The anti-Japanese sentiment manifested itself in occasional public destruction of Japanese cars, and in the 1982 murder of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American beaten to death when he was mistaken to be Japanese."

 

2 hours ago, gearbox said:

Japanese are North East Asians. And work very hard. And were contained...sort of. In the eighties there was an anti-Japanese hysteria similar to the Chinese one now. Tariffs were used. And they were "persuaded" to enforce "voluntary" quotas on their exports, esp cars. The history repeats itself somewhat.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Japanese_sentiment_in_the_United_States

"The anti-Japanese sentiment manifested itself in occasional public destruction of Japanese cars, and in the 1982 murder of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American beaten to death when he was mistaken to be Japanese."

 

Nope:

The Lost Decade or the Lost 10 Years (失われた十年 Ushinawareta Jūnen) was a period of economic stagnation in Japan following the Japanese asset price bubble's collapse in late 1991 and early 1992. The term originally referred to the years from 1991 to 2000,^[1] but recently the decade from 2001 to 2010 is often included^[2] so that the whole period is referred to as the Lost Score or the Lost 20 Years (失われた二十年, Ushinawareta Nijūnen). Broadly impacting the entire Japanese economy, over the period of 1995 to 2007, GDP fell from $5.33 trillion to $4.36 trillion in nominal terms,^[3] real wages fell around 5%,^[4] while the country experienced a stagnant price level.^[5

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Decade_(Japan)