Trump's Inauguration And China, China, China!

Trump takes office tomorrow as the new president of America with his obsession over China clouding the occasion.

That's just too bad. If you are obsessed, you can't think straight. And that will be bad for himself and the America he wants to make great again.

Threatening to put China in its place (what's that, anyway?!) by waging a trade war with the world's second largest economy seems more like a ego thing than  straight thinking.

We aren't even sure whether Trump might not get America into deeper trouble than saving its economy.

Imposing a 45% or higher tariff on Chinese imports will just mean the American people will have to pay more for Chinese goods. China will likely reciprocate by imposing tariffs on American imports and that will mean lesser imports from America. That will impact the American economy too.

And unless America can produce goods at competitive prices, who would want to buy from it if they could get them cheaper from China?

China is today the world's largest trading partner. If America buys less from China, China have other choices.

Punitive trade protection measures used to be what third world countries resorted to because they could not compete. Is Trump telling the world America is now a third world nation, unable to compete and needing protection?

Trump is better off trying to keep the borders of America safe from terrorists.

Even militarily, China now is no push over. China as the world's second largest economy, and the largest on a PPP basis, has too much at stake economically, that it won't take any threat to it lightly.

China's rise today is just a reassertion of their world preeminence for much of the past millennia or two. A newbie to the scene like America should learn to be more humble. It is in and to everyone's interest for it to so be.

Unlike the west, China has historically been more interested in trade with other nations than colonising and bullying them when they were the world's preeminent power.