Adam Smith would be disappointed at US officials’ hypocritical practices
By Zhong Sheng
“The
greatest improvements in the productive powers of labor, and the greater part
of the skill, dexterity, and judgment, with which it is anywhere directed or
applied, seem to have been the effects of the division of labor.”
The
definition of labor division made by Adam Smith, renowned as the father of
modern economics, in the opening chapter of his book Wealth of Nations, has been serving as a cornerstone for world
economics since the industrial revolution.
Just as
an American scholar remarked, Wealth of
Nations is one of the sources that powered the miracle of the US
development.
The
pursuit of a free market enabled the US to have done a great job in
establishing a global major market, and in the process of international labor
division. The adherence to fair competition is also what the US had always
taken pride in.
However,
some US politicians today have long forgotten where their country came from, or
are justly trying to stop the development of other countries for their own
interests even if they are clear about how the world economy runs.
The “invisible
hand” of the market is currently being held back by the “hegemonic hand” of
Washington.
Adam
Smith illustrated the significance of labor division by the case of making
nails, but the US politicians take everything as a nail and want to batter it
with a hammer in their hands.
Some US
intelligence officials have frequently fabricated the risks of doing business
in China, and the US government has also contained Chinese enterprises in the
name of “national security”. Uncle Sam even pressured its allies
to join it in restricting Chinese companies.
Abandoning
openness, freedom and fair competition, the US politicians have completely
destroyed their self-praised image of a “defender of fair competition”.
Even the
American media couldn’t stand such practices. In response to the ridiculous
remarks made by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
that the company is deeply tied not only to China but to the Chinese
Communist Party, and that connectivity, the existence of those
connections puts American information that crosses those networks at risk, an
American investigative journalist noted that the US government does not have
any evidence against Huawei’s alleged “theft of US corporate technology”.
On the
contrary, the Prism Gate scandal has already smashed the “real hammer” of the
US government’s eavesdropping on citizens to the end, the journalist added.
The
extreme pressure placed by Washington on China’s high-tech firms is a mirror
that reflects the hypocrisy of the US politicians. Their so-called trade
liberalism is to only liberalize themselves and confine the others, and their
so-called fair competition is nothing but resorting to hegemony.
Going
after unilateralism and holding high the “big stick” of tariffs, the US is
trampling on freedom and openness.
At the top
of the global industrial chain, the US is the largest beneficiary of
international labor division, a major rule maker of global trade, and home to a
great number of transnational corporations. It has already gained substantial
benefits in economic globalization.
However,
the fair competition principles of free market is just a pragmatism approach in
the eyes of the US politicians who use whatever that suits their interests and
abandon whatever that does not.
Similar
cases happened a lot, such as the Plaza
Accord signed in the 1980s in which Japan must swallow the
bitter pill, and the “American Trap” in which the French energy company Alstom
was contained by the US by legal weapons.
As a
Chinese saying goes, incidents that have happened will only grow fiercer as
time passes. The US politicians who are used to zero-sum games have probably
not expected that the US will lose the opportunity of healthy development once
it goes against fair competition.
The
forefathers of the US would definitely be disappointed if they knew how the
country is developing today. When the policies of a country are driven by
zero-sum game and confrontation mentality, the basis for its participation in
international labor division is gone. The country will not be a protector of global
orders any longer, but a troublemaker and risk igniter.
The US
is simply “pretending” to be ignorant about basic economic and trade knowledge
by accusing China of being engaging in unfair trade practices and requesting
the so-called fair and reciprocal trade. Claiming the US is “losing” and
shouting “Buy American and Hire American”, the US is doing nothing but
distorting the global industrial chain.
In a
world where development of different countries is closely linked
together, to cut off the tie is an arbitrary political act that goes
against the economic law, from which the US farmers will not benefit but be
trapped, the US economy will not be great again but fall, and the US capital
market will not prosper but become a place full of risks.
Trade
should be a win-win cooperation that brings mutual benefits. We are not hoping
that the US politicians abide by the sense of justice, remorse, and
consciousness as it has been said in Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments, but it
is not difficult for them to act as Homo Economicus
portrayed in Wealth of Nations.
Market rules
that value fair competition and win-win results are of specific significance in
today’s world, and to realize such significance is the maximum rationality.
US
economist Jeffrey Sachs recently published an article, admitting that China is
not the source of the US’ economic problems. Will such voice wake up the obdurate
US officials?
(Zhong Sheng is a pen name used by People’s
Daily to express views on foreign policy.)
Source: People’s Daily
Adam Smith would be disappointed at US officials’ hypocritical practices
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