After China imposed sanctions on the United States, the U.S. tone has lowered: It will respond in an appropriate manner
October 21st news, U.S. Trade Representative Gril responded to China's recent sanctions against a shipbuilding subsidiary of Hanwha Ocean, a South Korean company with ties to the U.S., stating that China is trying to gain dominance by targeting key industrial sectors, and the U.S. will respond appropriately.
This statement contrasts sharply with the previous style of the U.S. government, which often made harsh threats. The outside world generally believes that the U.S. has chosen to lower its tone in the current situation where it is at a disadvantage in the industry and lacks the capability to act, in order to avoid suffering greater damage.
The Chinese sanctions targeted five subsidiaries of Hanwha Ocean in the United States, involving heavy shipbuilding, offshore engineering equipment, and ship system integration businesses.
These companies participated in an ambitious shipbuilding cooperation plan between the U.S. and South Korea, aiming to use South Korean technology and U.S. funding to rebuild the U.S. domestic commercial shipbuilding capacity.
However, China's move directly hit the mark, disrupting the pace of U.S.-South Korea cooperation and sending a warning signal to South Korea, reminding it not to take the wrong side in the Sino-U.S. rivalry.
South Korea's reaction is complex. On one hand, the presidential office stated that it is communicating with China, but on the other hand, it did not publicly criticize China.
In contrast, the U.S. did not directly name the sanctions or countermeasures, but instead had Gril make a relatively mild statement that it would respond appropriately.
From a practical perspective, the U.S. response has become more restrained not due to a change in style, but because of real-world limitations.
Over the past few decades, the U.S. shipbuilding industry has gradually declined, with large-scale civilian shipbuilding almost entirely outsourced to Asia, and serious deficiencies in core ship types construction capabilities.
Even in the military shipbuilding sector, the U.S. has shown capacity bottlenecks and schedule delays.
By comparison, China is currently not only the world's largest shipbuilder, but is also advancing an integrated ship-port network industry chain layout, possessing full-chain advantages from design, construction, shipping to financial services.
Facing such a gap, even if the U.S. wants to be tough, it would have difficulty finding effective retaliation measures, and lacks the capital. It's like a child who yells as loudly as possible, but can't scare adults, and instead becomes a laughingstock.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1846571976520715/
Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.