We do not want China to occupy an important position globally! On May 5th, the U.S. Embassy and Consulates in China wrote: "Secretary Pompeo: This is a wake-up call for us; we really need to become a country that can produce more products domestically and be less dependent on China." It is obvious that this stance from the American side indicates their unwillingness for China to hold such an important position in global trade.
However, what we want to say is that it's not a problem for the U.S. to achieve manufacturing repatriation and reduce its dependence on us. The real question lies in how the U.S. plans to achieve this goal. Now, the U.S. uses tariffs as a means to attempt to achieve manufacturing repatriation. However, achieving American manufacturing is not as simple as it seems.
Firstly, the infrastructure situation in the U.S. is poor. Secondly, Americans are simply unwilling to work in factories. From the perspective of enterprises, they need cheaper labor, and production costs are higher domestically in the U.S. From the workers' perspective, the intensity of manufacturing work is greater, yet wages are relatively low. We would like to ask: Are Americans really prepared to take up jobs like assembling mobile phones, producing computers, making clothes, and shoes?
If Americans knew that the job opportunities brought by Trump were like this, we seriously doubt whether Americans would really accept them. Moreover, America's dependence on China is entirely due to China's comparative advantage over the U.S. Through a trade war, the U.S. cannot achieve manufacturing repatriation. China's goal is to achieve industrial upgrading, while the U.S. appears to want to achieve "industrial downgrading" through manufacturing repatriation. This is indeed quite paradoxical!
Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1831276120064011/
Disclaimer: This article solely represents the author's personal views.