U.S. and China Sign Billion Dollar Deals: A Victory for Trade or Globalism?
When he was campaigning for the Presidency of the United States, Donald J. Trump told voters he would make it his administration’s priority to reduce the trade deficit with China. Trump believed the Obama administration entered into trade agreements which was unfavourable to the U.S. and at the same time accused China of currency manipulation to make the Yuan more affordable.
As the 45th President of the United States completes his first tour of Asia, reports have circulated that U.S. and Chinese business groups have signed deals that total US$9 Billion. These include:
- com to purchase US$1.2 Billion worth of pork and beef products from Smithfield Foods and Montana Stock Growers respectively for the next three years.
- US$750 Million joint venture between Ford Motors and Anhui Zotye Automobile Corporation to develop electric vehicles for the Chinese market.
- Tencent to acquire 12% stake in Snap, the parent company of SnapChat.
The trade surplus of China with the U.S. has increased to US$223 Billion during the first 10 months of 2017.
William Zarit, the Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, assured reporters that the signing of the business deals with China would not prevent the Trump administration from addressing “structural issues” in trading arrangements such as Chinese limits on foreign participation in other industries like finance and healthcare.
What is alarming Trump supporters is the list of 29 businessmen who have accompanied the President in his tour of Asia. The list as published by CNBC reads like a who’s who of prominent globalists and Wall Street personalities with vested interests in China:
- Lloyd Blankfein – CEO of Goldman Sachs
- Kevin McAlister – EVP of Boeing
- Steve Mollenkoph – CEO of Qualcomm
- Shane Tedjarati – CEO of Honeywell
- Andrew Liveris – CEO of Dow DuPont
- Donald Chen – President for Asia Pacific, Archer Daniels Midland
- Jose Emeterio Gutierrez – CEO of Westinghouse Electric Company
- Mitch Snyder – CEO of Bell Helicopter
Reuters reported that Blankfein was included to facilitate a partnership with China Investment Corporation (CIC) to create a US$5 Billion fund that will invest in U.S. manufacturers.
An interesting personality involved in the Goldman Sachs – CIC partnership is John L. Thornton. Thornton used to be the President of Goldman Sachs and presently sits on the International Advisory Board of CIC.
In the 1980’s and 1990’s, Thornton established Goldman Sachs presence in China. He entered into deals with China’s state-owned enterprises and sovereign wealth funds which were under the complete operations of the Communist Party of China.
Thornton was feted the Friendship Award of the People’s Republic of China in 2008 which is the highest honour given to foreign experts working in China. Both Thornton and Blankfein are members of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) which is an advocate of globalist thought for government.
The CFR is pushing its idea of a New World Order for global governance or a convergence between the communist and non-communist nations. It is pursuing the gradual merging of economic, political and social institutions of the two ideologies.
Goldman Sachs is one of the largest funders of the CFR and is in fact already considered to be a “Founder”.
During the contentious presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly criticized Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican Senators Marc Rubio and Ted Cruz for their ties with Goldman Sachs which was famously described by Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi as the “Great Vampire Squid”.
Goldman Sachs was heavily involved in the subprime collaterized debt obligations (CDO’s) and credit default swaps that were largely responsible for the 2008 mortgage crisis. Instead of persecution, U.S. politicians rewarded Goldman Sachs with huge bailouts which were footed by the American taxpayers.
With the prominent role given to U.S. big business, does the “Let’s Make America Great Again” journey take a detour from Trump’s nationalist ideology of Principled Realism to globalism in order to narrow the trade gap with China?