Donald Trump had fought fiercely trying to bring China to its knee. But after close to 3 years since the U.S. president started the trade war in March 2018, the dragon is still standing tall – alive and kicking with a smile. Trump’s famous tweet – “trade wars are good, and easy to win” – which he arrogantly blasted on 2 March, 2018 now looks incredibly silly and childish.
The dragon proves too big and too powerful an economic powerhouse to be defeated by a one-term U.S. president. Economics professor Mary Lovely of Syracuse University said – “China is too big and too important to the world economy to think that you can cut it out like a paper doll. The Trump administration had a wake-up call”.
While the world is watching closely China’s new economic data next Monday, which includes its fourth-quarter GDP (gross domestic product), the Chinese ends the year 2020 with a record trade surplus much to the horror of the outgoing Trump administration. The December’s export boom saw the country registered a whopping trade surplus of US$78.2 billion for the month.
Despite pressure from a trade war with the U.S. and the Coronavirus pandemic, China recorded a trade surplus of US$535 billion for the full year – a stunning 27% increase from 2019 and the highest since 2015. That’s slightly more than half a trillion U.S. dollar. The numbers also inclusive of US$317 billion trade surplus with the U.S. (7% higher than in 2019).
Even without the U.S.’ trade surplus, China would still have registered a trade surplus of US218 billion with the rest of the world. Due to Covid-19, the world’s second-largest economy shrank by 6.8% from a year earlier, but only in the first 3 months of 2020. It never looked back thereafter with growth rebounded to 3.2% in the second quarter and accelerated to 4.9% in the third quarter.
From work-from-home technology gear to health care equipment, the world’s demand for China-made products, the world’s biggest manufacturing powerhouse, continues to skyrocket. In fact, according to Bloomberg, demand is so strong that it’s contributing to a bottleneck at ports as manufacturers complain of a shortage of shipping containers and surging costs.
Even though the first case of Coronavirus was detected in Wuhan, China quickly took control of the outbreak last year. Wuhan, the city of 11-million people, was locked down for 76 days before life returns for normal beginning April 8, 2020. As its reward, the country’s factories were able to capitalize on global demand while its rivals were seriously crippled.
Economists were impressed that China’s exports have remained resilient despite the return of the Covid second wave in major economies. According to China’s General Administration of Customs, Chinese factories exported the equivalent of almost 40 masks for every person in the world outside of China. Clearly, external demand is driving China’s economic recovery.
However, it was also due to the flexibility and ability of Chinese manufacturers in adjusting their production lines to produce goods to meet the demand during the Coronavirus period. Instead of destroying China, Trump’s trade war has forced Beijing to deepen its economic ties within Asia and Europe. As a result, Southeast Asia nations became China’s top trading partner in 2020.
China’s success in controlling Covid-19, while other economic powerhouses like the U.S. and European Union struggle to contain the pandemic, allows it to increase its share of global trade and investment. Believing China’s share of the global economy to grow at a faster pace, economists now expect the Chinese’s GDP will expand 8.2% this year (2021).
United Nations’ trade and development body UNCTAD projected global FDI (foreign direct investment) flows are likely to have fallen 30-40% year-on-year in 2020. Yet, China’s FDI reached more than US$129.5 billion through November 2020, slightly above the previous year – suggesting that the country could regain the title it lost to the U.S. in 2015 as the world’s top destination for FDI.
This also means President Trump’s tariffs and his “order” to American manufacturers to “immediately start looking for an alternative to China” has fallen on deaf ears. More than three-quarters of 200-plus U.S. manufacturers in Shanghai surveyed in September said they had zero intention to move production out of China. Here’s the reason – China’s huge consumer market.
General Motors Co and Volkswagen AG continued to sell more cars in China than in their home markets last year. Nike, meanwhile, reported sales of US$2 billion for the first time in China in the quarter ended November 2020. Starbucks was so confident in the Chinese market that the American multinational chain of coffeehouses plans to open about 600 new stores this year.
In the same breath, Trump lied when he claimed that his tariffs had boosted the American economy, while causing China’s economy to have its “worst year in over 50” in 2019. The president also scored another own goal when he claimed that China was paying for the tariffs. According to National Bureau of Economic Research, it was U.S. consumers who paid US$16.8 billion tariffs in 2018.
The key to China’s economic strength is its huge consumer base. According to a McKinsey research report, domestic consumption contributed more than 60% of China’s growth during 11 out of 16 quarters – from January 2015 to December 2018. In fact, McKinsey said in 2017 and 2018, about 76% of China GDP growth actually came from domestic consumption (Chinese consumers).
The research report published by consultancy McKinsey and Company in 2019 also showed that the Chinese economy isn’t as fragile as Trump, or other so-called economists or analysts, thought. The relationship between China and the world is changing – incredibly fast. The world has become more economically exposed to China, while China’s to the world has fallen.
Interestingly, China posted a trade surplus of US$323.32 billion with the U.S. in 2018, the first year Donald Trump declared trade war with China and the highest on record going back to 2006. About three years later, China recorded US$317 billion surplus with the U.S. – just a slight difference. Obviously, Trump has lost not only his Oval Office, but also his trade war.
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- China’s Economy To Overtake U.S. By 2028 Due To Covid – A False Praise That Could Rally The West Against China
- Five Eyes Alliance Plans To Teach China A Lesson With Economic Sanctions – But It’s Easier Said Than Done
- A Win For Biden Could “Reset” China-U.S. Relations – But China Is Well Prepared For Any Eventuality
- Economists Thought China’s Economy Depends On The World – But McKinsey Research Shows Otherwise
- Despite Trade War And Anti-Chinese Rhetoric, China Wants President Trump To Get Reelected In 2020 – Here’s Why
- From Trade War To Tech War – After 5G Technology, The US Aims To Cripple China’s Artificial Intelligence
- Watch Out Trump!! – China May Weaponize “Rare Earth” To Retaliate Against U.S.’ Ban On Huawei
- China’s New Message To The U.S. – “Negotiate – Sure!”, “Fight – Anytime!”, “Bully Us – Dream On!”
- Huawei Strikes Back – U.S. Fears Of Being Left Behind, Fails To Hack Into Huawei To Spy
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January 15th, 2021 by financetwitter
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Not at all anything surprising about the article, we can always be sure the Chinese supremacists will errr trump all and come up triumphant. The big problem for Trump is he’s just another ignorant monkey to the Chinese, and he knows bollocks about anything outside his huge infantile ego. The Chinese culture knows very well how to deal with monkeys like Trump, and the ketuanan Cina in the Chinese let Trump expend his energy digging a deep hole for himself to jump in. And that’s exactly what ketuanan Cina did!
While letting Trump make a damn fool of himself attacking China and posturing like a wild west hero, the Chinese concentrated in making all the moves for the wellbeing of the Chinese – while building more and polishing their huge money pots.
Now not only the Chinese were supremely able to contain the virus, they were and are able to come on top of the world as a successful new power. All the kacau kacau done by the Yanks etc came to nought and came to grief.
If our garden variety supremacists are capable of learning anything, they should learn from their Chinese uncles, China is the bacon of light in a world that is near entirely kaput, and will be kaput for a jolly damn long long time to come. No one is able to do better than the proud nation, I mean China, not Malaysia.
2021 is going to be quite a year, already China is collecting all the winning cards.
Malaysia can only sit around and grudgingly bear great envy, resentment, and cluelessly thump the chest under the coconut trees while hopelessly getting nowhere even more!
I would humbly suggest ketuanan turn to the Chinese uncles, kowtow deeply, and beg them to save Malaysia – and make Malaysia great again – even if Malaysia was never great! Malaya was only ever great when the Chinese sailed by and decided to give ketuanan some attention by deciding the uncivilised tribes around could do with recognition as some kind of kingdoms. The Chinese even gave yellow colour umbrellas to the damn natives to establish them as some kind of “power”.
History would be repeating itself, our dear old Chinese uncles has become almighty power again – and with gigantic mountains of lovely dedak that even the Yanks and the Europeans the ketuanan Chinese think should die for! And Malaysia should hope the dear old uncles would shower ketuanan hapless with some loose change,there being no way out of the the economi
c turmoil not just of ketuanan clueless being worthless but useless too.
So get on yer wobbly knees and yer coconut begging bowls ready, pray for our dear old Chinese uncles to notice us, no need to thank me for my life-saving idea while you lose your life savings and can’t save your lives!
Hang around for my other life-saving tips, my love and my devotion and my concern and my religious duty demand that of me as a little gesture, thank you, and I am not even asking 72 raisins on earth or Malaysia right now!
All I am asking is for all those lazy sod monkeys to get up from under them coconut trees, even better, out of bed, do some real work for yer dedak, make China even greater again!