- Thomas Paine
Just before Christmas in 1776, Thomas Paine penned these words to raise the morale among American patriots. The 18th-century philosopher likely knew that hard times lay ahead, a war with the British was a long shot at best, and conflict was inevitable. Similarly, as the United States strives to end a lengthy and lopsided trade war with the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the road ahead is fraught with economic skirmishes, and, for those invested in the stock market, it is most definitely gut-check time. So, what’s a Communist dictator to do? If you’re Xi Jinping, you hit the road and merrily travel to other trading partners to cajole, convince, or otherwise threaten them to join forces with the PRC.
Yesterday (April 14), Chinese President Xi Jinping began a tour of Southeast Asia, ostensibly to shore up the PRC’s trade agreements with Vietnam, Malaysia, and Cambodia. While in Hanoi, he signed multiple deals designed to signal a cooperative relationship between the two Communist countries. Xi was quoted in Vietnam’s Communist Party newspaper as saying, “There are no winners in trade wars and tariff wars,” in an astonishing lack of self-awareness. As President Donald Trump has repeatedly pointed out – and economists of every stripe maintain – the Chinese cannot win this trade war. Yet their actions belie this simple truth as they continue to ratchet up the vitriol against the United States in general and Trump in specific.
The tariff wars that have commenced across the globe did not begin with Trump. They are a result of unfair Chinese trade, which over decades has been left unchecked and now must be recalibrated. Still, it seems that Xi is hellbent on making the United States the bully and projecting China as the aggrieved party. Such projection is typical of those who believe the best defense is to attribute their psychological impulses to others.
As Xi spreads his pixie dust throughout the region, one wonders if the Chinese leader’s travel schedule is designed to dish out more of this pride and false bravado in an effort to psych out the US president. However, Trump, whose middle name could be translated as “he-who-loves-to-negotiate,” has more than enough experience not to buy in to such head games. This is especially true because he holds the winning hand in this high-stakes poker game.
Xi Jinping and the Head Fake
So, what is the point of this psych play that Xi is enacting with such gusto? Certainly other countries are well aware of how the PRC rolls and have been putting up with it for years as well. Liberty Nation News Editor-in-Chief Mark Angelides, who spent a decade living and working in China, offered the following insight:
“While folks in the media love to deride the America First doctrine as isolationist and exclusionary, what has preserved China’s economic success and – even more so – its domestic peace is the China First attitude. This ‘PRC must win’ mentality comes with all the hallmarks of MAGA but without the inconvenience of an opposition party. Premier Xi has to look like the winner in all international endeavors, whether peaceful or antagonistic, to keep sway over a country in which ‘face’ is often considered more important than family (and only slightly behind money).
“If Donald Trump is doing trade deals with other nations, Xi has to do them too. If Trump applies tariffs, Xi has to add to the burden. The Chinese government has an image of itself as ‘above’ Western government in terms of strength, cunning, and intelligence. Trump’s latest moves have upset that fragile persona on the world stage, and Xi has no choice but to react. To the domestic audience, he needs to appear as the aggressor in the tariff war. No matter what the eventual cost.”
In trying to avoid shame through false pride, Xi is extending the tariff battle but is unable to change its outcome. Perhaps he is convinced that while Trump talks a big game, the people of the United States are not up to the challenge and will ultimately capitulate. Other countries have long held that Americans are microwave creatures who don’t have the courage to hang tough.
“These are the times that try men’s souls,” Paine wrote in the first line of his pamphlet The American Crisis. At that time, most Americans knew they were outnumbered, outgunned, and outfinanced. But none of that stopped their quest to become their own masters. They forged ahead against all odds and triumphed over the world’s superpower at the time. Xi Jinping would do well to recognize the bravery and resilience of the American people and not make the fatal mistake of underestimating them.
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Liberty Vault: Declaration of Independence
