THE ONGOING United States tariffs may seem like it’s about economics, but it’s ultimately about politics and power.
An increasing number of American leaders recognize that it is no longer the world hegemon that can dictate the terms and conditions of the world economy. It has hollowed out its industrial base, offshored critical jobs and it has undermined much of its power in the Global War on Terror.
Despite this, the US still holds significant power, and President Donald Trump and his administration is using that power to change the global economic system and America’s place in it.
That is the real goal of the tariffs. It’s not just about getting favorable trade deals and bringing back jobs, it’s also about restoring manufacturing, ship-building, semiconductor production, etc. back to the US.
It also means, if possible, excluding China and other rival powers from accessing Western tech and shoring up its sphere of influence.
For China, the tariffs mean exclusion from the American sphere of influence, which should be good, since that they have been praising multi-polarity not too long ago.
The reality, however, is that they are reliant on the global economic system more than other countries, and America’s goal of isolating China will hurt the latter by undermining its economic and social stability.
Make no mistake. What we are seeing now may be the formalization of the Second Cold War. US-China rivalry is real, as is the race for AI dominance.
China’s goal of taking Taiwan is also very real, and it is for these reasons that there could be no meaningful amicability between China and the US in the foreseeable future, and why the tariffs are just the first phase.
It’s possible that the US will exclude Chinese professionals from its universities and R&D (research and development) programs, de-couple diplomatically and solidify its control over its own sphere of influence.
The US must do this, because the Chinese are attempting to do the same thing to them. A multipolar world means a multipolar economic system, and an end to globalized economic system that has existed since the end of the United Soviet Socialist Republic./PN
