China draws its strength in the middle of the technological and commercial war with the United States

By JORGE ELIAS

@JorgeEliasInter

In the day-to-day of the technological and commercial war between the United States and China, everything seems coldly calculated. Perhaps Donald Trump did not want to admit that Xi Jinping had a pair in his sleeve: the suspension of the purchase of US agricultural products and the devaluation to a minimum of eleven years of its currency, the yuan, which counterbalanced the imposition of new tariffs on your products. Or perhaps it preferred to denounce the manipulation of the currencies that triggered a storm in the global financial market and to advance another record on the confrontation table. The game that plays best and likes the most.

Trump broke the truce at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan. The United States accused China of artificially devaluing the yuan, but did not formalize the complaint.

For the first time in a quarter of a century, the United States turned to the International Monetary Fund. The weakness of the yuan has made US products more expensive in the Chinese market. Was it inevitable that the crisis worsened? In 2017, Graham Allison, Dean of the School of Government at Harvard University and Deputy Secretary of Defense for Bill Clinton's first government, named him: The Thucydides Trap.

In his day, Thucydides described the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) as the forced ending between the Spartan dominance and the new Athens.

Hegemonic power fought another power that threatened its supremacy. A confrontation between two Greek cops. Allison, ordinary sources of tension can trigger large-scale conflicts. A dry war between the two great powers of the 21st century?

"The decline of US leadership and US opposition to Europe has prompted Xi Jinping to muscle up"

Since 1949, China has used force only in three of its 33 fights. Especially in the South China Sea, where he built artificial islands on disputed reefs.

China uses an ancient weapon on all fronts: patience. The so-called "peaceful growth" since the end of the Cold War has proven to be detrimental to the United States because of its penetration into different regions of Latin America and Africa without that it is necessary to appeal to imperialism in the old.

This low profile, championed by Deng Xiaoping in the 1978 reform and opening program, is not exempt from taxation and restrictions in his fields, such as Hong Kong and Taiwan.

In the 1990s, China adhered to the World Trade Organization with the principle of applying a market economy without departing from the communist political mold. In 2011, it exceeded Japan's GDP. Two years later, he published the Xi era.

Xi rejected in 2015 the Thucydides trap theory because it was a Western view of competition with the United States, but she hinted that, if past mistakes were repeated, it could increase the risk of # 39; confrontation. Then, Barack Obama promoted the so-called turning point towards Asia and the signing of the Trans-Pacific Economic Cooperation Agreement, perceived as a provocation by China.

In Trump's inner circle, Steve Bannon, a former White House strategy officer, said a few years after the war would be inexorable. It was actually a declaration of war.

The decline of American leadership, the inequity against Europe and the fall of values ​​such as democracy and human rights have prompted Xi to strengthen his capabilities.

China is planning ports in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, despite repairs from another giant, India. With the Silk Road, he is trying to unite East and West to crown his global influence. Work, commerce and the fifth generation or 5G Internet network after launching a rocket on the dark side of the moon and encouraged Europeans to break ranks with Trump, absorbed by America first and reelected in 2020. (Télam)