Trump’s America – Episode 68 – When Tom Friedman Speaks, Listen

By Arthur Piccolo

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. May 3, 2018: Thomas Friedman commands huge audiences with his Observations.

Today, Tom Friedman is receiving a distinct honor, being featured in this episode of Trump’s America. Yes, being featured for the first time ever here! He never made an appearance in Obama’s America.

My publisher could never afford to hire Tom Friedman to write for News Americas. She can only afford me and I am giving her Tom Friedman for FREE this week. She is Truly Blessed!

First WARNING – this week’s episode might be viewed by some as favorable to President Donald Trump, a rarity in Trump’s America – but just keep it in context; it does not make Trump A Good Guy in the wider context, and moreover, he has not yet produced results in this Global Battle.

At the same time, this is one instance where Trump’s constant criticism of Former President Barack Obama’s failures and Trump’s positive comparison of himself to Obama, has some real substance.

As for Tom Friedman, he is best known for writing books and columns that are characterized by feel good pronouncements about the future and the triumph of the Human Spirit and about Our Better Angels.

Not this week in his Op-Ed in The New York Times, one of our key media “partners” here. This week, Friedman got Down & Dirty, the way I do every week here. That has earned him this special honor this week.

First of all, the two “characters” joining him above are stand ins … for President Trump on the left (yes double entendre),  and to Friedman’s right ,very much so, stand in for Chinese President/Dictator Xi Jinping.

These two characters, aka Uncle Sam and Winnie the Pooh. As for Winnie, just one more reason Trump’s America will NEVER be seen in China. In case you don’t know, in totalitarian China, Winnie the Pooh is BANNED completely because Winnie, who bears a resemblance to Fat Xi, is a way Chinese had of mocking China’s All-Powerful Dictator Xi. No more!

Now let’s get Down & Dirty with Tom Friedman and his piece in The Times on Wednesday titled: “U.S. and China are Finally Having It Out,” which very much supports our position here toward China as the Ultimate Threat to Everything.

Shall we begin?

Thomas L. Friedman, in his own words, along with my few supportive supporting commentary on his insightful commentary …

It’s all yours Tom, time to Deliver….

“With the arrival in Beijing this week of America’s top trade negotiators, you might think that the U.S. and China are about to enter high-level talks to avoid a trade war and that this is a story for the business pages. Think again. This is one for the history books.”

WRONG; as Tom Friedman will explain in a moment. Right now …

“Five days of meetings in Beijing with Chinese, U.S. and European government officials and business leaders made it crystal clear to me that what’s going on right now is nothing less than a struggle to redefine the rules governing the economic and power relations of the world’s oldest and newest superpowers — America and China. This is not a trade tiff.”

Tom tell us what is really going on?

“This is a defining moment for U.S.-China relations,” said Ruan Zongze, executive vice president of the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s research institute. “This is about a lot more than trade and tariffs. This is about the future.”

Did you get that? Because it is very important …

“This is a defining moment for U.S.-China relations …,,,, This is about the future.”

In others words, one nation will WIN the other LOSE ….. BIG, VERY BIG!

Keep going Tom, my many, many Readers need to hear this ..

“In one corner stand President Trump and his team of China trade hard-liners, whose instinct is basically right: This is a fight worth having now, before it is too late, before China gets too big.”

And who is in the other corner?

“And in the other corner stands President Xi Jinping of China, whose instinct may also be right — this is a fight worth having now, because it is too late — China is just too big.”

Tom this in fact is WAR by other means, in this case TRADE!

Tell us more …

“Or, as one Chinese expert put it at a Tsinghua University dialogue on trade I attended, “No one can contain China anymore.” You hear that confidence in Beijing a lot today from Chinese: Our one-party system and unified society can take the pain of a trade war far longer than you Americans can. And there is a trade imbalance today because we’ve been investing in our future and you Americans have been eating yours.”

Down and dirty the way Americans needs to hear it!

There is a trade imbalance today because China has been investing in its future and Americans have been eating ours.”

And where Trump can brag at least this once …….

OBAMA DID NOTHING about it for 8 years!

No Tom did not write that, I did, because it’s true. Let me add another just as Obama did nothing to confront North Korea either. President Obama is making Trump look good again. We know Obama gave us Trump to begin with by backing the LOSER Clinton, the ONLY Democrat Trump could beat.

Back to Tom Friedman; I do not want to steal the stage. He is my Guest!

“A Chinese economist who worked in the West summarized it this way: “You brought China into the world and changed China,” but now China is in the world and it is becoming “self-propelled.”

Friedman is NOT holding back. You have never heard him MAD like this.

Let’s get to the heart of the matter Tom ….

“Here’s how we got here: In Act I, U.S.-China relations were all geopolitics, with the U.S. and China against the Soviet Union. That lasted until the late 1970s, when Act II began: China shifted toward capitalism, becoming a huge factory and new market — and 30 years later turned into the world’s second-largest economy.”

“In large part this was due to the work ethic of the Chinese people, the long-term thinking of China’s leaders and the government’s massive investments in infrastructure and education. But in part it was also due to China’s willingness and ability to bend or ignore rules of the World Trade Organization and, at times, outright cheat.”

Tom will now remind us China does NOT play fair at all …..

“In some cases China used industrial espionage to just steal innovations from the West. Other moves were more subtle: When China joined the W.T.O. in 2001, it was allowed in as a “developing nation,” subject to very low tariffs on its exports to our country but permitted to impose high tariffs to protect its own rising industries from U.S. and European competition.”

Yes of course there is more …

“The assumption was that as China grew, and the W.T.O. moved to a new regime, China would quickly cut its tariffs — like its 25 percent tax on car imports, compared with the 2.5 percent tariff imposed by the U.S. But the W.T.O. still has not completed a new trade round and China has refused to voluntarily lower its tariffs.”

“Moreover, China developed an industrial policy that often bent W.T.O. rules. The government gave away cheap land, and state-guided banks granted cheap loans for new industries, but foreign companies that wanted access to China’s market were forced to pay to play — to have a Chinese partner and be willing to transfer their advanced technology to them.”

And what has been the result Tom? Do not mince your words please …..

“As a result, over time, Beijing was able to force multinationals to shift more and more of their supply chains to China, and grow Chinese competitors to Western companies in its protected market, and then, once they were big enough, unleash them on the world as giants.”

How bad has it gotten Tom?

“Even when the U.S. protested to the W.T.O. — as in the case of how China unfairly kept U.S. credit card companies out, then lost the arbitration case at the W.T.O. — China still dragged its feet before following through on promises made 17 years earlier to open up. By then, Chinese companies, like UnionPay, so dominated China’s credit card market that U.S. companies, like Visa, were left with the crumbs.”

Tom, we need to skip to the end even though you have so much more to say in your commentary because my readers get anxious when my episodes get too long but My Readers can find it all at the NY Times Website. Please do.

Some final Words of Wisdom Tom …

“In short, with a lot of allies in Europe and on the Pacific, we might be able to move China in the right direction. But Trump is alienating them all. How foolish is that? Trump also has nothing to say about investing in the real source of long-term U.S. strength — infrastructure and education.”

ARE YOU LISTENING TRUMP … you are part of the Problem !

Tom, what is your message for Dictator Xi and China?

Listen up Winnie the Xi ….

“Creating a regime of one-man rule; controlling the Internet, free speech and universities more tightly than ever; and resurrecting the teaching of Marxist thought cannot be the best way to stimulate and attract the most creative and innovative minds that China needs to propel a start-up economy and deliver on ‘Made in China 2025.’”

Thank you Tom, thank you thank you thank you for appearing here.

Maybe I will have you back again but not for any of your fluff stuff you are mostly known for. Keep getting Down & Dirty. If you read Trump’s America week after week you will learn how from a True Master!

I would be honored to be your Teacher. Free of charge. My readers do not have to pay. And I don’t get paid. So why should you pay?

Since this is my weekly commentary, I will take the Last Words.

Dictator Xi and China are the biggest threat by far to the United States and the rest of the world. The REPRESSIVE elitist model of Capitalism Xi is selling to the world and with success is in fact a WAR against the rest of us

If China is successful in overwhelming America and clearly becoming the dominant power on Earth that will make a mockery of human progress and result in a frightening world “order” like that envisioned by George Orwell.

THIS IS WAR and we must win!

##### 30 #####

(This entire series is dedicated in honor of the late Liu Xiaobo)

EDITOR’S NOTE: About The Writer: Arthur Piccolo is a professional writer and commentator and often writes about Latin America for New Americas.