Trump une a América na Guerra Económica à China

E, oh espanto, a Foreign Policy já tem de o reconhecer!

“Uma nova atitude em relação à China está tomando forma rapidamente em todo o espectro político dos EUA. O senador Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) ecoa os argumentos do presidente Donald Trump, condenando a transferência da “nossa” tecnologia para a China e condenando o investimento lá. A senadora progressista Elizabeth Warren (democrata de Massachusetts) está fazendo fila com o ex-estrategista chefe da Casa Branca, Steve Bannon, pedindo uma política “agressiva”. Democratas do establishment, como o líder da minoria no Senado, Chuck Schumer, estão apoiando a guerra comercial de Trump com a China. Fieis do livre comércio como o conselho editorial do Wall Street Journal e órgãos do establishment como o Council on Foreign Relations estão encontrando um terreno comum com sindicatos protecionistas como o United Steelworkers e críticos comerciais como o Global Trade Watch. Embora ainda existam diferenças significativas de política e estratégia, aparentemente todos concordam que os chineses estão conduzindo o comércio de uma maneira predatória que fere os negócios e trabalhadores americanos, e que chegou o momento do confronto.” Assim escreve a Foreign Policy para quem esta a guerra económica “is a sign of a global system gone badly wrong”. Embora, fiel à sua ingénua e linear visão do sistema global, a “FP” logo proponha como “alternativa” uma impossível (num horizonte provável e útil) “genuinely global vision of development”.

China Is Cheating at a Rigged Game

The trade war is a sign of a global system gone badly wrong.

BY JAKE WERNER |FOREIGN POLICY | AUG. 8, 2018, 9:29 AM

A new attitude toward China is rapidly taking shape across the U.S. political spectrum. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) echoes President Donald Trump’s talking points, decrying the transfer of “our” technology to China and condemning investment there. Fellow progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is lining up with former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon calling for an “aggressive” policy. Establishment Democrats like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are endorsing Trump’s trade war with China. Free-trade stalwarts like the Wall Street Journal editorial board and establishment bodies like the Council on Foreign Relations are finding common ground with protectionist unions like the United Steelworkers and trade critics like Global Trade Watch. While there are still significant differences of policy and strategy, seemingly everyone agrees that the Chinese are conducting trade in a predatory manner that hurts American business and workers, and that the time for confrontation has arrived.

Curiously absent from these arguments is any analysis of what motivates Chinese policy. In its place we find a crude image of duplicitous Chinese bent on taking advantage of innocent Americans. As Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, put it at a hearing in March: “China has stolen our intellectual property, held American companies hostage until they disclose their trade secrets, and manipulated their markets in a strategic manner to rip off American jobs and industries.” Or as Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said, “We simply can’t let China erode our national security advantage by circumventing our laws and exploiting investment opportunities for nefarious purposes.”

This is an image that resonates in disturbing ways with the long history of anti-Chineseracism in the United States. And just as Chinese immigrants in the 19th century were made a scapegoat for free-market capitalism’s inability to create broadly shared prosperity, so too China is being blamed today for the failure of free-market globalization to achieve inclusive growth.

China Is Cheating at a Rigged Game

Imagem de destaque: Thomas Peter/Getty Images/Leon Neal/Getty Images/iStockphoto/Foreign Policy illustration Exclusivo Tornado / IntelNomics

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