Trump. Start
Trump is taking action. His first independent steps as President of the United States are aimed at destroying the Obama health care system and strengthening the internal security regime against the influx of migrants. But these are internal problems of the United States that few people outside the United States care about.
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Perhaps Trump's most important and notable foreign policy decisions were the elimination of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the start of confrontation with China.
The TPP was an ambitious project of globalists, according to which in Southeast Asia the United States was assigned the role of economic hegemon in the new free trade zone No. 1. It was planned that 12 countries, 1 billion people, 40% of world GDP would participate in the TPP. It is estimated that trade between countries in the TPP could grow by 11%, and the GDP of the partnership members by 1.1%. TPP participants include Australia, Brunei, Vietnam, Canada, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Chile and Japan. As conceived, the TPP was initially an anti-Chinese project in which China had no place.
However, problems with the TPP emerged even before the start of Trump’s election campaign. The Republican majority in the US Congress was determined to put a spoke in the wheels of the Obama administration's global economic partnership projects, and with Trump's victory, it became clear to everyone that the project was unviable without US participation. Therefore, some members of the TPP, such as Australia and New Zealand, interested in the implementation of a new Asian free trade area, are trying to breathe life into it and lure China into the role of a locomotive, while such an important player as Japan is not happy without an American leader. Without it, Japan is not going to participate in any partnership programs run by China.
As for China, it is not interested in puffing along the steam locomotive for the globalist interests of the United States and Japan in its geopolitical space, since China has its own alternative project called FTAFA (Asia-Pacific Free Trade Area), in which they will certainly not play according to the American Japanese rules.
In addition, for a number of good reasons, the potential leadership of China within the TPP is absolutely not beneficial for the “junior partners”, since the partnership with the Americans at the head opened up for them tempting duty-free access to the American market. Competing in the Chinese market, which is “overheated” with local inexpensive goods, is not for the advanced.
It goes without saying that Trump, who defends the domestic market and national producers, cannot be satisfied with duty-free access for goods of “junior partners” to the American market. Now each of them will have to independently negotiate with the American side, pay duties, overcome anti-dumping legislation and compete with expensive American goods without any concessions.
The TPP agreement was not beneficial to anyone except the already lost elites in the United States itself and except for some interested parties in other countries. The agreement was the result of the activity of the financial lobby and primarily protected the interests of large transnational capital to the detriment of local production and service markets. The Trans-Pacific Partnership was a sham deal from start to finish. A huge cluster was conceived of the countries of Asia, Oceania and some countries of South America with the leading role of the United States, where the dominant role would be played by TNCs, mainly with American capital.
On this occasion, Canada and Mexico froze in joyful anticipation, having a reasonable hope of revising the current NAFTA agreement regulating free trade among the countries of North America. New hope for the revision of old rules has dawned for the WTO. Experts expect that the entire old model of globalization will undergo a major revision.
As for Russia, according to experts, it will benefit from the liquidation of the TPP project, especially in the long term. And not only Russia. If the TPP and its analogue for Europe had started, the entire space of the EAEU would have been under an economic blockade from the east and west. Now nothing will stop Russia from developing new markets and creating bridgeheads in countries such as Chile, Thailand and South Korea.
Trump, on the one hand, is presenting a gift to China by removing a competing megastructure in the Asia-Pacific region with his own hands, and on the other hand, his entourage announced rules back in December last year according to which a 5% duty would be imposed on Chinese goods imported into the United States. And to prevent free trade lovers in Congress from defeating the initiative, Trump intends to introduce protective duties by presidential decrees.
In addition, as has already become known, Trump began comprehensive pressure on China, declaring a trade war on it and making a number of statements of a confrontational nature. Trump, in an ultimatum, demands the return of American industrial facilities to the United States and the strengthening of the yuan against the dollar in order to neutralize the competitive advantages of the Chinese economy. As you know, one of the main complaints of globalists against the leadership of the PRC is the deliberately undervalued exchange rate of the yuan in relation to other reserve currencies, which allows the PRC to maintain an export-oriented economy from year to year.
To underscore the seriousness of his demands, Trump tampered with China's pet peeve—having a hearty conversation with Taiwan's leader, demonstrating clear disdain for the "one China" doctrine, under which China determines the level of handshake for other countries. The Chinese leadership has long turned a blind eye to the economic ties of other countries with Taiwan, but it certainly views any official contacts with the rebellious islanders as an encroachment on its sovereignty.
Again, Trump reiterated the seriousness of his actions through the recent statement by Admiral Harris, commander of the US Pacific Fleet, about America’s readiness to confront China in the South China Sea if “illegal maritime claims” continue. We are talking, first of all, about the Chinese presence and military construction on the islands of the disputed Spratly archipelago.
China responded to Washington’s threats by transferring two brigades of the latest Dongfeng-41 ICBMs (flight range 15 thousand km) to Heilujiang province, bordering Russia.
This maneuver caused a certain amount of tension in the world and bursts of idiotic laughter from potheads who were confident that China deployed its ICBMs exclusively against Russia. We hasten to bitterly disappoint the owners of boiled brains with peas. Such close placement of Chinese ICBMs next to Russia does not give China exactly any additional advantages. On the contrary, it makes expensive missile systems accessible and vulnerable to conventional weapons in the event of a hypothetical conflict. But Heilujiang Province is much closer to America than the inland Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where Chinese Dongfeng-41 missiles are usually based. The Chinese seem to be unequivocally hinting that from the coastal province the flight time to US territory is reduced to 20 - 25 minutes.
In the current situation, Russia should play subtly so as not to suddenly destroy excellent relations with China and seemingly improving relations with the United States. It seems...
So far, Trump has not shown himself in any way in the field of lifting sanctions against Russia and has not outlined his position on Ukraine. It is very possible that in a situation of aggravation with China, the Trump administration may demand unequivocal support from Putin in exchange for a combination of “sanctions + Ukraine.” Since, as they say, the Kremlin flatly refused to agree to nuclear disarmament in exchange for the end of sanctions. Trump will try to give an impressive result in the near future: Maidan sentiment is raging in America and a small successful “blitzkrieg” would help Trump gain popularity among Russophobes and Clintonites.
But it’s better to wait and see with what result the first personal meeting between Trump and Putin will end.
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