Quote:
Originally Posted by Traum
For someone who is currently living in Hong Kong, I really find it surprising that you can be thinking this way. It isn't "a narrative that I built" that Trump is tough on China. It is a common consensus among the anti-Communist China crowd that Trump has been quite effective in clamping down on China, and this consensus includes insights from some of Hong Kong / Taiwan's smartest critics and commentators.
If you think Biden would have enacted those 5G sactions like Trump has, think again. During his campaign, Biden tried to say that he would remove Trump’s tariffs on Chinese products if elected president. (His staff later walked back on the statement.) Biden also said he would work with western democracies to broadly pressure China into abiding by international rules and protocols. As I've pointed out before, that approach does not work (on China). The 5G blockages are also not something that any administration would have done as you so claim. Look back at what I have mentioned above -- I'd say the the other countries are only blocking Huawei and its 5G because they have seen Trump leading the charge, so joining the ban after the US has done it first becomes far less risky for themselves. When you look at the timeline of when the bans came into place, you will see that it started with the US on May 1, 2019. Britain and Frace, for example, followed a year later.
As the largest economy in the world as well as China's biggest trading partner, the US already posses more than enough strength and firepower to force China into cooperating. If the RoW wants to join in on the effort, it'll make the job faster and easier. If there is too much bickering (because each country's national interest will be different), then the US can go at it alone, and it'll be somewhat slower. There is no need to wait.
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Sanctions and tariffs are different things. Removing or lowering tariffs does not mean that Huawei 5g will automatically be welcomed back with open arms. As you said, the other nations also chose the same ban. It was not driven by other countries' anti-communism views, or as a protest to the China's human rights record nor to stop China's quest for world domination. It was deemed as a security risk and not a partisan policy. Assuming that a Biden administration (or any other administration not named Trump) would ignore their own intelligence warnings and allow Huawei 5g is quite a reach, IMHO.
Also, increasing or implementing tariffs does not mean you are being tough and standing up to China on a world stage. It just means that you want their imported products to be more expensive so that consumers may choose a domestic substitute. It has nothing to do with "Stop oppressing your citizens or invading Asean countries or we will make your cell phones/toys/junk more expensive in the US!"
Now, as for calling it the "China Virus". This will be up to debate and a matter of opinion since we don't really know exactly what he's thinking and he's been known to straight up lie, but I will go with how I perceive him based on what he's said and done so far:
1. He likes to deflect blame on just about anything
2. He bungled up his federal coronavirus response and stigmatized masks
3. He's somewhat racist
4. He seems to be very self-serving in the way he acts
To me, based on my perceptions above, I think that he is just trying to shift the blame on China because of his own atrocious handling of the coronavirus. This is a matter or opinion and I'm sure you will disagree, but I believe it has nothing to being tough on China. If the virus had originated in Brazil and US counts are as high as it is , he would be calling it the "Brazil virus" and it's not because of IP theft.