{"id":46136,"date":"2019-05-14T19:20:56","date_gmt":"2019-05-15T00:20:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=46136"},"modified":"2019-05-14T19:20:58","modified_gmt":"2019-05-15T00:20:58","slug":"us-china-the-hardcore-is-yet-to-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=46136","title":{"rendered":"US-China: the hardcore is yet to come"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"US-China:<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A container ship unloads cargo at the port terminal in Long Beach, California on May 10, as talks to resolve the US-China trade battle ended Friday with no deal, but no breakdown. Photo: Mark Ralston \/ AFP<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US-China: the hardcore is yet to come<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Trump administration\u2019s response to China\u2019s emergence has been to throw all sorts of spanners in the works, but tariffs won\u2019t bring back manufacturing jobs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s start with the \u201clong\u201d 16th Century \u2013 which, as with the 21st, also saw a turbulent process of marketization. At that time, the Jesuits and the Counter-Reformation were trying to rebound across Asia \u2013 but within a context where the rivalry between the Iberian superpowers of the age, Spain and Portugal, still lingered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Reformation first attached itself to the Dutch trade thalassocracy \u2013 a seaborne empire, under which commerce was paramount \u2013 over strict propaganda of religious dogma. Britain\u2019s maritime realm was still biding its time. The emergence of Protestantism proceeded in parallel to the emergence of neo-Confucianism in East Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward to our turbulent times. Marketization \u2013 renamed as globalization \u2013 seems to be in crisis. But not in the Middle Kingdom, which is now investing in globalization 2.0 amid increasing rivalry with the other superpower, the US. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The American thalassocracy is being superseded by the Revenge of the Heartland, in the form of the Russia-China strategic partnership \u2013 for whom Eurasian trade integration, as expressed by the New Silk Roads, or Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), is paramount over the Make America Great Again (MAGA) dogma. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the re-emergence of Right populism in the West mirrors the re-emergence of pragmatic neo-Confucianism across Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BRI \u2013 the prime vehicle for Eurasia integration \u2013 would have never come to light without China\u2019s four decades of breakneck economic development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n