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Alibaba's Jack Ma Backs Down From Promise To Trump To Bring 1 Million Jobs to the US (cnbc.com)
Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba, has abandoned a promise to create one million new jobs in the US, in a sign of the threat that rising trade tensions with China pose to some of US President Donald Trump's key economic goals. From a report: "The promise was made on the premise of friendly US-China partnership and rational trade relations," Ma told Chinese news site Xinhua on Wednesday. "That premise no longer exists today, so our promise cannot be fulfilled." Ma, who recently announced that he will step down as Alibaba chairman within a year, added that the company would "not stop working hard to contribute to the healthy development of China-US trade." Ma's comments come on the heels of a new round of tariffs this week from both China and the U.S. that will affect billions of dollars worth of goods as the two countries have failed to reach a deal to resolve the Trump administration's concerns about China's trade practices.
Slashdot economics experts: China has been bullying other countries economically for decades and unfairly favoring its own companies. We have to do something about it before its too late. The longer we wait the more painful it will be.
After Trump ........
Slashdot economics experts: WAAA Trump did something China didn't like and they gave me a booboo. Waaa we must never offend china to keep cheap chinese goods forever!
China has also been giving other countries cheap good for decades, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing for those countries. It's made the US and other countries very rich in terms of material goods and freed up labour to do more productive things. It's not all great of course, not all of those jobs could be replaced and at some point China starts taking jobs you'd really prefer to keep and exerting influence in ways you don't like.
But lets accept the premise that you do need to start pushing back against China, it's fairly reasonable. There's a difference between doing X effectively and doing X like a counterproductive moron.
What's one way to counter China? How about big trade deals with other nations, like the Trans Pacific Partnership... oops... Trump backed out of that.
What about rallying your allies to excerpt pressure against China, like Obama did to make the Iran deal. Oops again. Trump has made it toxic for US allies to cooperate.
Maybe you can come to an agreement with China's leaders where there ease up on their more controversial practices? Well there's another oops. Trump style of shaming the other country makes them willing to absorb a lot of pain before they give in on any policy.
Fine if you want a more confrontational approach with China, you have possibly the most ill-equipped President in your history trying to execute it.
I stole this Sig