Opinion: This is how a superpower commits suicide

[kpete]

https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/930163243296919552/86TR3Wvq?format=jpg&name=600x314


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Despite his tough talk, Trump struggled to secure any major concessions during his visit to China, which refused to budge on core economic and geopolitical areas of disagreement, particularly over North Korea and the South China Sea. Failing to impose his will on the host nation, Trump even ended up giving Beijing “great credit” for its ability to take “advantage of another country for the benefit of its own citizens.” Trump blamed his predecessors for America’s ballooning trade imbalance with China.

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Since Trump’s ascent to power, America’s standing in the world has experienced a virtual collapse. According to the Pew Research Center, international confidence in American leadership has declined significantly in the past year. This has been most acutely felt in the Asia-Pacific region, the new center of gravity in global geopolitics.

Among America’s Asian allies, such as South Korea and Japan, confidence in the American president’s ability to make the right judgment has dropped by as much as 71 percent and 54 percent, respectively. In Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim nation, it dropped by 41 percent. This is nothing short of a disaster for American soft power.

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In short, allies have shown their willingness to move past America and actively construct a post-American world, partly to expand regional trade as well as to keep China’s rising influence in check. I spoke with a veteran American trade negotiator who said it seems highly unlikely that a post-Trump America will ever agree to join a retrofitted version of the TPP, which aims to radically alter the economic configuration of its member states. The U.S. Congress, by law and political tradition, will likely not agree to ratify a free trade agreement unless American negotiators have had a pivotal and sustained role in shaping its outcome. This means allies will have to either forego American participation in the so-called “TPP 11” down the road or, alternatively, effectively freeze negotiations until Washington changes its mind. That’s a lot of wasted time and strategic opportunity.



MORE:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/theworldpost/wp/2017/11/13/trump-china/?tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.c5948fefea0f

[Irish_Dem]

1. America has lost a great deal of power. we will ever assume the same status as in the past?

Bush's disaster in the middle east, collapsing the economy, etc. was the beginning of the slide.
Obama stabilized and enhanced our position, but Trump crashed us closer to third world status.

[FarCenter]

2. "Sole Superpowers" don't last for long. Spain, Dutch Republic, France, Great Britain, ...

History is littered with countries which become the paramount power in the world for a short time.

Single and dual power systems are unstable.

[Kolesar]

3. The US had trade and military pacts that kept us on top for the longest time.

Maybe this is just globalization catching up with us. Tuesday musing

[FarCenter]

4. During the Clinton years the trade deficit ballooned to $30 billion / month.

During W's administration it worsened to $60 billion / month. Lately, it has run about $40 billion per month.

We can't afford to buy such costly friendship.

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/balance-of-trade

[pangaia]

5. It is Russia's game plan.

[IronLionZion]

6. Ironically, Steven Bannon also wrote some nonsense about the fall of Rome

in his biography. Blaming multiculturalism, the decline of manliness, civic virtue, etc.

Bannon is such a piece of shit he actually blames diversity for destroying the Roman Empire and not their conquests and enslavement of people. Dude is such a dumbass that he completely ignores the role of Christianity also. Also wealth inequality, brutal government oppression and corruption, military spread too thin, etc.

[Johnny2X2X]

7. China is the big winner

I have a graduate global business class on Monday nights that has several Chinese Nationals in it. The discussions are pretty frank. The professor is great at getting the Chinese students to speak about their country's business and political goals. They are tickled pink that Trump is deciding that the US will no longer be the leader of the World. Their Belt and Road trade deal will be a vehicle for them to be the dominant culture and country for the next century. The US is getting left behind by choosing to forgo trade deals that grow Americas influence. The meager $250 Billion deal Trump bragged about is specifically designed by the Chinese to enhance and not deter their bigger $21 Trillion Belt and Road trade vision for the future.

China will dominate a more united Africa for trade in the coming decades, the US is choosing to watch from the sidelines. The Chinese agenda for the world will very soon mean more than the American agenda.

[Blue_Tires]

8. Yeah, but Hillary had a private e-mail server so it all balances out, or something...

This is why anyone who ever again says both parties are the same needs to be instabanned...

[jmowreader]

9. Predecessors?

Is one of these predecessors “Donald Trump the Businessman”? FFS, everyone in the country knows the Trump family sells imported goods...all of which were being made in the US when the Trumps started selling merchandise and continue to be made here today.