SNS: Asia Letter Q1 2019: “China Should Thank Trump”

In This Issue
Week of 12/17/2018
Vol. 23 Issue 38

Asia Letter Q1 2019: “China Should Thank Trump”

• Japan Ditches Chinese 5G
• NEC and Fujitsu Back from the Brink
• Your Friend, Huawei
• Dark Side of the Moon
• Japan-India Space Dialogue
• BRICS Without Brazil?
• El Salvador Dumps Taiwan
• Xi Jinping on the (Belt and) Road
• Forum Macao
• China-Singapore Free Trade Agreement
• 500 Chinese Companies Invited to Invest in Thailand
• Sri Lankan Business Chooses China
• Trump Qualifies South Korean Independence
• Trans-Siberian Railway to Busan
• Spider Thread Factory
• About Scott Foster

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“As repeatedly argued in this space, in many ways, the Chinese should truly thank Trump for what he is doing towards the country. Without his actions, the Chinese government would not have scaled down its over-the-top propaganda drive about how amazing China has become, nor would it have been forced to reflect on its own limits and pitfalls. Nor, more pertinently for Chinese consumers, would China have been so forthright in lowering or even removing tariffs on imports including consumer goods and drugs, which it has done three times in the past year or so.

“This is all about China itself, which direction it will take, and what China should do to counter the headwinds it faces.”

– From “China Should Thank Trump and Stop Using Trade War Excuse for Confused Economic Signals,” by Wang Xiangwei, former editor-in-chief of the South China Morning Post, who is now the newspaper’s editorial advisor in Beijing (South China Morning Post, 10/28/2018)

Chinese e-commerce retailer Alibaba completed the acquisition of the South China Morning Post in April 2016. In an interview given at the time, Alibaba’s executive chairman Jack Ma said:

I don’t see it as an issue of [coverage] being “positive or negative.” It is about being impartial, not one-sided. The paper’s China coverage should be objective, reasonable and impartial … we should offer a fair chance to the readers, not only a fair chance to China….

As I said to Joe [Joseph Chung-hsin Tsai, Alibaba’s executive vice chairman, newly appointed chairman of the South China Morning Post], “You are going to the Post as a representative of its readers. You don’t have to represent shareholders. You speak for the readers.”