Practices going against trend of time destined to lose
By Zhong Sheng
Rejecting globalization was like rejecting the
sunrise, senior journalist George Packer once warned US years ago.
Unfortunately, such constructive remarks have
been completely ignored by some US politicians who go against the trend of time
and declared that Americanism, not globalism, will be their credo.
What the US has done only hurts the others
without necessarily benefiting itself. Under trade protectionism, it resorted
to additional tariffs, export control, and the Entity List, and made a series
of actions that go against the trend of time, including its withdrawals from
international organizations, building the border wall and initiating the trade
war.
Such practices have made the world wonder that
if the US is leaving the earth.
Economic globalization has injected strong
impetus to world economic growth. During the past decades, the US, calling
itself an advocate for economic globalization, was also the largest beneficiary
in the integration process.
However, the US is becoming a destroyer, which
has to a large extend disappointed the world. Some US politicians even talked
nonsense that free trade isn’t globalization, and globalization has left
millions of US workers with nothing but poverty and heartache.
Such voice aims at nothing but to divert the
antagonistic problems at home to economic globalization, whishing to maximize
its own profits at the sacrifice of global interests.
Because of such voice, some US politicians
have lost their rationality and resorted to obsolete approaches. They arbitrarily
imposed additional tariffs and abused national security investigations,
creating challenges for global countries.
Leave aside the lack of respect for rules and
morality of the US, will the anti-history “America first” strategy “make
America great again?”
Just as a Kazakh proverb aptly puts it, “One
who tries to blow out other’s oil lamp will get his beard on fire.” What the
trade war has brought is the rising prices of the commodities in the shopping
carts of America citizens who had no other choice but to shoulder the loss.
The net income of US farmers, plunging by 16
percent last year, went back to the same level of that 10 years ago when
financial crisis broke out. American Soybean Association, American Apparel and
Footwear Association and US Consumer Technology Association have all expressed
the concern that the additional tariffs would only hurt US farmers, US
enterprises and US consumers
Washington is not capable of moving
manufacturing back to the US as it turns its back on the laws of industry transfer
and international labor division.
Backwardness won’t help, especially in the US,
said German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. To produce the commodities it used
to import from other countries, the US has to regain a huge labor force.
However, many regions of the country are currently suffering from a lack of
human resource.
Economic data of the US also heralded
potential risks. Manufacturing output declined 2.1 percent in the first quarter
from a year ago, and the monthly performance dropped by 0.5 percent this April.
What will the US obtain by interfering with
global industrial chain with its bullying practices? Nothing but the
destruction of its own image.
Washington always likes to brag about its
sense of international responsibility, but it has severely damaged the world
trade orders and global public products by its wide provocation of trade wars.
The World Trade Organization has slashed
global trade growth forecast for 2019 from 2.6 percent from 3.7 percent, the
lowest in the recent three years. In indicates that the US never cares about
its due responsibilities, but has set a “recession trap” for the world.
Even American economists refused to accept the
remarks and practices of certain US politicians, saying the anti-globalization
moves under the banner of protecting domestic interests and laborers will not
contribute any constructive solution, but damage the international image that
the country has long maintained.
The US is going too far on the road of
anti-globalization. On the contrary, China, fulfilling its responsibilities and
with its commitment to globalization, is sending positive signal that the
country will always act as a builder of world peace, a contributor to global
development, and an upholder of the international order.
China’s openness is not forced, but a
proactive decision that injects certainty to the world standing at a
“crossroad”. History will eventually reveal who upholds justice, follows moral
code and wins people’s support.
“The trend of the world is surging forward. Those who follow the trend
will prosper, and those who go against it will perish,” said Dr. Sun Yat-sen,
the pioneer of China’s democratic revolution. A country is destined to lose if
it goes against the trend of time, no matter how powerful it is.
Today’s world village is no longer a primitive
tribe, and the days when isolation worked has long gone. Any attempt to channel
the waters in the ocean back into isolated lakes and creeks is simply not
possible.
History has proved, and will once again prove
that the ones rejecting the world will end up being objected by this world. We
hope the US officials can understand that there is no future for anti-history
practices.
(Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by
People’s Daily to express its views on foreign policy)
Practices going against trend of time destined to lose
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