- The United States wants to dismantle China's Taiwan at the United Nations;
- The United States began to play the emotional card, wanting China to spend huge sums of money on its agricultural products;
- Western companies failed to "de-sinicize" and began to relocate to China;
- Fumio Kishida has made no secret of his expansionist ambitions and has returned to Abe's old path
China holds the rotating presidency, and the United States is busy dismantling Taiwan
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict has lasted for more than half a month, and the UN Security Council has still been unable to come up with a ceasefire agreement, which has called into question the authority of the Security Council.
Since 1 November, China has assumed the rotating presidency of the Security Council and is ready to work with the international community to promote a ceasefire and cessation of hostilities, ensure the safety of civilians, advance humanitarian assistance, prevent serious humanitarian disasters, and promote a comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the Palestinian question.
Wang Yi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Minister of Foreign Affairs, said that in the face of the deteriorating situation in Gaza and the rising number of casualties, no conscientious and responsible country can allow such a tragedy to continue. Wang Yi's remark is obviously a tactful way to advise the United States, leaving the Biden administration with the last face.
However, just as China, as the rotating presidency of the Security Council, was campaigning to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli issue, the United States began to dismantle China's Taiwan. On November 2, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass a bill announcing a total of $14.3 billion in military aid to Israel. Even though Israel has besieged Gaza City and started a ground offensive against Gaza and repeatedly airstrikes on Gaza refugee camps, the United States is still providing weapons and ammunition to Israel, which is an excesses that encourages Israel and is also an obstacle to China's efforts to promote peace talks.
In fact, China's push for a Palestinian-Israeli ceasefire is also beneficial to the United States. As Israel has created more and more humanitarian disasters in Gaza, the political pressure on the United States to continue to support Israel has also increased, and once the outside call for a ceasefire reaches a critical point, the US government has to stand up and call for a ceasefire for Israel, thereby offending its most important ally in the Middle East.
Rather than waiting for the time to be forced to take sides, the United States should now cooperate with China's plan to promote peace talks and promote a cease-fire plan. And Israel continues to carry out military strikes on Gaza, which also greatly increases the probability of Arab countries besieging Israel, and at present, due to the deterrent power of the US aircraft carrier fleet, Arab countries are only verbally condemning Israel, but the US aircraft carrier fleet cannot always stay by Israel's side, and the US strategy of returning to the Indo-Pacific is also doomed to the fact that the US military cannot return to the Middle East on a large scale, so the United States cannot let the Palestinian-Israeli conflict continue to expand, and a major power needs to replace or help the United States calm the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
And according to CNN, U.S. President Joe Biden has privately warned Israel that there are only a few weeks left for Israel, and the U.S. government will soon be forced by public pressure to call for a ceasefire. Previously, the Biden administration had opposed a Palestinian-Israeli ceasefire, arguing that doing so would only fuel Hamas.
On November 3, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken began a visit to Israel, in which Blinken said Israel not only has the right but also the obligation to defend itself, but should also take "concrete steps" to mitigate harm to civilians in Gaza. Although the United States still refrains from talking about a ceasefire, its stance has gradually shifted towards protecting civilians in Gaza. During China's presidency of the Security Council, it can continue to reach consensus with all parties and finally jointly put pressure on the United States and call on the US government to publicly persuade Israel to cease fire.
The United States plays the emotional card and wants China to buy soybeans
And when the United States dismantled China, on the other hand, it did not forget to play the emotional card with China. On November 2, the U.S. Department of Agriculture led a delegation to China to Shanghai to participate in the 6th China International Import Expo, and Su Jian, CEO of the U.S. Soybean Export Council, said: There are some differences between China and the United States, but U.S. agricultural representatives hope to maintain good relations with China. The CEO of the U.S. Soybean Export Council also emphasized that his father was a Flying Tigers pilot, which made him more motivated to promote exchanges between China and the United States.
From July 1941 to August 1945, a group of American volunteer pilots formed the Air Force for China, which later became known as the "Flying Tigers." At the most difficult time of China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Flying Tigers built an air barrier in China's airspace, effectively dealt a blow to the Japanese invaders, and made outstanding contributions to the victory of China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. And the spirit of the Flying Tigers has also become a symbol of cooperation between China and the United States, just as China's top leader said: the hope of China-US relations lies in the people, and the foundation lies in the people. The Flying Tigers carry the profound friendship forged by the Chinese and American people with their lives and blood, and China recognizes the contributions of the members of the Flying Tigers and their descendants, and is willing to promote the spirit of the Flying Tigers and promote the friendship between the Chinese and American peoples.
It's just that the Chinese are grateful for the contribution of the Flying Tigers, but trade negotiations are trade negotiations, and if the United States wants China to spend a lot of money on agricultural products, it must first show sincerity, not simply play the emotional card.
In late October, a delegation of Chinese commodity importers signed a multibillion-dollar agreement of intent to purchase agricultural products in the United States. This type of intent to purchase agreement is not a formal purchase contract and is not legally binding. With this move, China has sent a positive signal to the United States that there is a lot of room for cooperation in trade, but the United States needs to take concrete actions to facilitate this deal.
In addition to sending officials with family backgrounds of the Flying Tigers to China to sell agricultural products, on 2 November, Flying Tigers veterans Moyer, McMullen, and others also arrived in Kunming to visit the Flying Tigers Memorial Hall set up by China.
Today's U.S. farmers are facing problems such as overcapacity and fierce market competition, and are eager to open the Chinese market to alleviate their urgent needs. Previously, China had lifted punitive tariffs on Australian barley and wine, giving the United States hope of a large-scale return of its agricultural products to the Chinese market. Recently, Sino-US relations have eased significantly, and there have been frequent high-level interactions between the two sides, and China needs to import a large amount of agricultural products every year, and it does have the motivation to buy American agricultural products. However, if the United States wants to facilitate this deal, it must maintain the current relationship between the two countries, and do not say one thing and do another, otherwise, China can abandon the agreement on the purchase of agricultural products at any time, anyway, Brazil's corn, soybeans and other agricultural products have ushered in a bumper harvest this year, and American agricultural products are not essential for China.
From the perspective of American politics, farmers and traditional manufacturing workers are the "vote base" of the Republican Party, and during the Trump administration, Sino-US relations began to deteriorate, resulting in the gradual withdrawal of American agricultural products from the Chinese market, which made American farmers angry. If Biden can handle the Sino-US agricultural trade on behalf of the Democratic Party, it will also be tantamount to digging the Republican Party's "vote base", which is very conducive to Biden's 2024 presidential election. Therefore, in addition to playing the emotional card, Biden may try his best to maintain Sino-US relations and strive to facilitate this deal.
Hitting a wall in Southeast Asia, Western companies are moving back to China
U.S. agricultural products are poised to return to the Chinese market in a big way, and many Western companies are starting to move back to China after hitting a wall in Southeast Asia. On November 3, Singapore's "Lianhe Zaobao" reported that in the past few years, affected by factors such as continued geopolitical tensions and manufacturing costs, many Western companies have moved from China to Southeast Asia to build factories, but due to global economic uncertainty and production capacity stability, Western companies have begun to move back to China.
For example, Germany's Adidas and the United States' Nike have previously shifted their supply chains to Vietnam, only to find that there are many difficulties in replacing Vietnam as China's production center, and China has established a mature supply chain ecosystem, which Southeast Asian countries do not have.
Majir, head of development at Bata, a Czech footwear manufacturer, believes that China can ensure the quality of products while producing them on a large scale.
Although Southeast Asia and other countries have the advantage of labor costs compared with China, but Western companies will transfer their production lines to Southeast Asia only to find out how outrageous it is, taking Vietnam as an example, although the minimum wage standard in Vietnam's first-tier cities is about half of China's, but the quality of Vietnamese workers can not be compared with Chinese workers, and Vietnam can not provide complete infrastructure for factories, China can ensure that factories do not stop power throughout the year, and in Vietnam because of short-term power shutdown is commonplace.
In addition, Vietnam also lacks a complete supply chain, and Vietnam's garment manufacturing industry is very dependent on Chinese raw materials, about 60% of the materials need to be imported from China, and the increase in logistics costs further offsets the advantage of Vietnam's labor costs.
A similar situation can be seen in all walks of life, where China can provide many seemingly inconspicuous guarantees for foreign companies, but in Southeast Asia it has become a luxury, such as stable electricity, good law and order, a sound legal environment, and high-quality workers. Many Western companies only saw the superiority of labor costs in Southeast Asia, and thought that they could move their production bases away from China, until they encountered a nose of dust in Southeast Asia, and they realized that it was easier said than done to "break away" from China.
In terms of size, Southeast Asia cannot be compared with China, with a total area of 4.57 million square kilometers, about 50% of China's population and only 47% of China's population. Combined, the labor resources of all Southeast Asian countries are not comparable to China's, and the education level of Chinese workers is ahead of Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia can only be used as a supplement to China's production base, and it is still far from replacing China, from the perspective of infrastructure construction, economic development and population education, Southeast Asia is equivalent to China in the early 21st century, and Western companies are still inseparable from China in the short term.
Kishida's ambitions were exposed, and he co-opted ASEAN to target China
China's importance is unparalleled, but Japan is weaving a wide net against China. On November 3, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida arrived in the Philippines for an hour-and-a-half-long meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The final success of the talks was that Japan and the Philippines would negotiate the signing of a "Reciprocal Access Agreement" to facilitate cooperation between Japan's Self-Defense Forces and the Philippine military.
In addition, Fumio Kishida will visit Malaysia to seek to expand security cooperation with ASEAN countries. The Philippines and Malaysia are both countries with territorial disputes with China, and the highlight of Kishida's visit is to expand cooperation in the South China Sea and work with ASEAN countries against China. Fumio Kishida's diplomatic strategy is actually a continuation of Shinzo Abe, during the Abe administration, Japan has been courting Southeast Asian countries as the direction for Japan to enhance its influence.
In 2022, Japan announced a five-year plan to make Japan the world's third-largest military spender after China and China, and it also ordered offensive weapons such as cruise missiles from the United States.
With the connivance of the United States, Fumio Kishida is leading Japan to free itself from the shackles of the "Peace Constitution" and gradually possess the ability to attack other countries. Now Fumio Kishida is again courting allies in Southeast Asia to achieve the goal of "jointly containing China." The remnants of Japanese militarism know very well that China is no longer the backward agricultural country it used to be, and that the biggest enemy of Japanese militarism is not the United States, but China. As long as China has not relaxed its vigilance against the resurgence of militarism, Japan's extreme right-wingers will continue to "hold on." Fumio Kishida's current co-optation of Southeast Asian countries is also to increase Japan's bargaining chips, create an arms race and armed friction in the South China Sea, distract China's energy, and create opportunities for the resurgence of Japanese militarism.
Although Abe has passed away, Japan's militarists have been hiding in the shadows like endless cockroaches. With the acquiescence of the United States, Fumio Kishida has taken a tentative step, and for a period of time in the future, Japan's strategic deployment against China will become more and more explicit, until the fangs of militarism are completely exposed, and the United States, the former dragon-slaying warrior, has also become an evil dragon, and this time only China can provoke the main beam of resistance to militarism.