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[jerry113]

Full Article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...st-trade-war-in-davos/?utm_term=.84e4980ce2c9

Excerpts below:

”It is true that economic globalization has created new problems, but this is no justification to write off economic globalization altogether," Xi said, speaking through a translator. ”We must remain committed to developing free trade and investment."

....

China was one of Trump's chief antagonists on the stump, and many at the World Economic Forum expressed fear that his administration will begin a new era of global barriers to commercial exchange. Trump, who will be inaugurated on Friday, has threatened tariffs of as much as 45 percent on goods imported from China, arguing that the nation's interests must come first in U.S. foreign policy.

Without mentioning Trump by name, Xi offered an opposing viewpoint. Countries, he said, ”should view their own interests in their broader context and refrain from pursuing their own interests at the expense of others."

”No one will emerge as a winner in a trade war," Xi said to applause.

...

For observers in Washington, Xi's appearance in Davos suggested a claim to the kind of international economic stewardship that Trump has rejected.

”If we look back five years from now, 10 years from now, you could say this was a turning point, at which China did move up in the direction of asserting the kind of global leadership role that the U.S. has had for about a century and might willfully be abdicating," said Fred Bergsten, the former director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, in an interview before Xi's speech.

German economist Klaus Schwab, founder of the exclusive economic forum that meets in Davos every winter, made a similar point in introducing Xi.

The world expects China to provide ”confidence and stability," Schwab said.

”Particularly today in a world marked by great uncertainty and volatility, the international community is looking to China," he said.

...

Speaking to international audiences, Xi typically eschews bold rhetoric, maintaining a low profile. Analysts say he and other Chinese officials are aware that explicit pretensions to worldwide leadership could inflame anxieties in the United States and elsewhere.

”The Chinese have been very careful not to describe themselves as a global leader," said Bonnie Glaser, an expert on China at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, prior to Xi's speech.

Xi's address Tuesday was characteristically measured and subdued. All the same, his themes of international cooperation and global stability offered an implicit contrast with the rhetoric from Western populist leaders.

”The subtext is that the United States and the West are no longer the stabilizing factors in the world order," Glaser said.

Full article: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-says-world-must-implement-paris-climate-deal

Excerpts below:

he world must not allow the Paris climate deal to be ”derailed" or continue to inflict irreparable damage on the environment, Chinese president Xi Jinping has said, amid fears the rise of Donald Trump could strike a body blow to the fight against global warming.

Trump, who will be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States on Friday, has threatened to pull out of the historic Paris agreement and dismissed climate change as a Chinese ”hoax" and ”expensive... bullshit".

But in an address to the United Nations in Geneva on Wednesday, which observers saw as a high-profile bid to bolster China's image as a reliable and dedicated climate leader, Xi issued a direct challenge to those views, warning ”there is only one Earth in the universe and we mankind have only one homeland".

”The Paris agreement is a milestone in the history of climate governance. We must ensure this endeavor is not derailed," the Communist party leader said.

”All parties should work together to implement the Paris agreement. China will continue to take steps to tackle climate change and fully honor its obligations," Xi added, according to a transcript published by Xinhua, China's official news agency.

...

Li Shuo, Greenpeace's China climate policy adviser, described Xi's speech as ”a very important political signal ... especially in the context of the incoming US administration".

The activist said he believed Xi's call to arms on the climate was designed to pressure Trump's White House into sticking to his predecessor's commitments while simultaneously highlighting China's role as a responsible climate leader.

”It is a calculated move... it is their first move on the chess board and I expect further moves if they are needed at a later stage," said Li.

”China has a very important and a very special role in keeping the US on course and we would very much like to see them use their leverage on that," he added.

 

[Blablurn]

President Xi deserves more praise for his Pro-Globalization stance and the Western media should pay more attention to what he has to say. Shameful it didn't get more attention.

 

[darkwing]

what a time to be alive, China pushing for climate change initiatives, while the US denies it

are we in the darkest timeline yet?

 

[JordanN]

what a time to be alive, China pushing for climate change initiatives, while the US denies it

are we in the darkest timeline yet?

Not until 12:00am. So 2 more hours.

 

[Blablurn]

what a time to be alive, China pushing for climate change initiatives, while the US denies it

are we in the darkest timeline yet?

I wouldn't worry. Xi will lead the world towards a more healthy global econmic growth with Win-Win for everyone.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

China is the world's biggest net exporter of goods, of course they are full speed ahead on globalization. In unrelated news, water is wet.

Meanwhile, the US is the largest net importer and runs the largest trade deficit. It's a miracle that Americans didn't figure out how to be skeptical of globalization until 2016.

 

[Diablos]

No idea how we will remain a superpower unless Trump is an ineffective one termer. Otherwise I think the implications for the future are really scary for us.

I do not want years of trade wars. Your PS4 costing 2-3x as much someday will be the least of your worries.

 

[Foffy]

Globalisation is good if countries have floors and nets for people displaced.

Right now, this concept isn't even being considered in a large enough scale, and until it is, you will either have aversion of those in the precariat, or shitty ass excuses from plutocrats.

Global Trumpism, a danger affecting many countries now, is what happens without this floor.

 

[sphagnum]

Just wait until the Chinese working class begins to complain about their jobs being outsourced to east Africa or wherever and automation stealing their jobs. They'll turn protectionist just like Americans.

Maybe hopefully some sanity will prevail and China will remember its socialist roots before that happens.

 

[D4Danger]

just wait for the trickle, any minute now.

 

[Goro Majima]

China is the world's biggest net exporter of goods, of course they are full speed ahead on globalization. In unrelated news, water is wet.

Meanwhile, the US is the largest net importer and runs the largest trade deficit. It's a miracle that Americans didn't figure out how to be skeptical of globalization until 2016.

Yeah China literally became the 2nd most powerful nation in the world (and growing) off the backs of globalization and largely due to the American and European consumer while also taking over much of the world's manufacturing. They want to keep the good times rolling because they're currently the biggest benefactor.

While we can debate economics, they're not wrong about climate change though.

 

[OpinionatedCyborg]

I can't believe we're letting China off the hook. Xi had managed to isolate China from all of its neighbors and potential friends without us doing much of anything. Trump is reversing all of those gains and making Xi look competent in comparison. Unbelievable.

 

[rpmurphy]

I can't believe we're letting China off the hook. Xi had managed to isolate China from all of its neighbors and potential friends without us doing much of anything. Trump is reversing all of those gains and making Xi look competent in comparison. Unbelievable.

Thanks, Trump!

 

[O Canada Our Home and Native Land]

Defending globalism after trying to dump steel.

 

[sphagnum]

I can't believe we're letting China off the hook. Xi had managed to isolate China from all of its neighbors and potential friends without us doing much of anything. Trump is reversing all of those gains and making Xi look competent in comparison. Unbelievable.

Yeah, this is the irony of it. If Trump really wanted to put China in a bind, he would have continued Obama's pivot to Asia. Just be nice with surrounding countries, make amends and alliances, sign economic agreements, don't rock the boat too much. Xi was too aggressive and making China look bad.

But he's an idiot and just wants to scream about the Yellow Peril.

 

[Blablurn]

Defending globalism after trying to dump steel.

The pros outweigh the cons.

 

[Jeels]

Jesus what kind of weird upside down world when Chinese leaders are speaking more in line with my values than the next American president.

Note: I.acknowledge Chinese leaders do some fucked up shit.

 

[sphagnum]

America, ironically, is going to same way China went. Protectionism, the belief that other countries only weakened them, closing off their borders. By the way, it went horribly for China. History repeats itself though, especially since I doubt Donald and his administration know jack shit about China's history. (Maybe they should pay attention to a country that has managed to record written history of almost almost 4,000 years.)

The only thing he knows about is the wall.

 

[Foffy]

The only thing he knows about is the wall.

You would think if he was so big on a wall, he would have started to make a Great Wall in his mind, so he doesn't get into childish Twitter wars.

 

[Ogodei]

This is some sinister stuff, really. China, the single-party dictatorship with loads of human rights abuses, is using the mustache-twirling villainy of Russia and rank xenophobia of America and Britain as cover to portray their human-rights-violating system of government as a wise, just promoter of stability.

I mean, props to Xi for playing the situation right, but this is how fucked up the world is now, where straight-up Maoists are beating the so-called liberal democracies in a war of optics, and they'll use it to sweep the horrors of their regime further under the rug while they point and laugh at the latest dick-swinging Trump tweet.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

No one in China is a "straight-up Maoist" anymore. The Communist Party in China has been devoid of Communist ideology for decades. They just want to cling to power forever, and they have been very skillful in manipulating the Chinese people into believing that only their single-party authoritarian rule stands between their nation and a return to the period of ruin that characterized China from the end of the last dynasty to the rise of the Communists.

China's "peaceful rise" doctrine isn't some mysterious secret world domination text that is kept locked in a high-security vault somewhere. Everyone knows that China has been using growing economic might as leverage to become a superpower without the inconvenience of spending a lot of money on their military. Of course now that their economy has grown to the 2nd largest in the world, they can now spend freely on their military which isn't exactly good news for any of their neighbors or the current sole superpower.

It's a mystery why the Americans, having previously been shamed by the Japanese in the 1980's and 1990's using almost the same methodology of domestic industry, massive exports, and trade surpluses to choke the economies of nations they wanted to climb over, were so completely oblivious to the Chinese version of the Japanese economic conquest plan a decade later. But here we are, the Chinese are now ascendant and they have done it by redirecting the world's capital flows inwards using massive trade surpluses powered by exports from domestic industry. Unlike the Japanese, they never got arrogant or filled with hubris and have avoided the crash that crippled Japan for decades.

So yeah, if you're shocked that Xi Jinping is currently the world's biggest cheerleader for globalization, you've literally not been paying attention. Globalization has been the engine of Chinese ascendancy.

 

[sphagnum]

I mean, props to Xi for playing the situation right, but this is how fucked up the world is now, where straight-up Maoists are beating the so-called liberal democracies in a war of optics, and they'll use it to sweep the horrors of their regime further under the rug while they point and laugh at the latest dick-swinging Trump tweet.

China hasn't been Maoist for decades. They're Dengists. Bo Xilai was closer to the Maoists.