By Zhong Sheng
Rejecting globalization was like rejecting the sunrise, senior journalist George Packer once warned US years ago.
Unfortunately, such constructive remarks have been completely ignored by some US politicians who go against the trend of time and declared that Americanism, not globalism, will be their credo.
What the US has done only hurts the others without necessarily benefiting itself. Under trade protectionism, it resorted to additional tariffs, export control, and the Entity List, and made a series of actions that go against the trend of time, including its withdrawals from international organizations, building the border wall and initiating the trade war.
Such practices have made the world wonder that if the US is leaving the earth.
Economic globalization has injected strong impetus to world economic growth. During the past decades, the US, calling itself an advocate for economic globalization, was also the largest beneficiary in the integration process.
However, the US is becoming a destroyer, which has to a large extend disappointed the world. Some US politicians even talked nonsense that free trade isn’t globalization, and globalization has left millions of US workers with nothing but poverty and heartache.
Such voice aims at nothing but to divert the antagonistic problems at home to economic globalization, whishing to maximize its own profits at the sacrifice of global interests.
Because of such voice, some US politicians have lost their rationality and resorted to obsolete approaches. They arbitrarily imposed additional tariffs and abused national security investigations, creating challenges for global countries.
Leave aside the lack of respect for rules and morality of the US, will the anti-history “America first” strategy “make America great again?”
Just as a Kazakh proverb aptly puts it, “One who tries to blow out other’s oil lamp will get his beard on fire.” What the trade war has brought is the rising prices of the commodities in the shopping carts of America citizens who had no other choice but to shoulder the loss.
The net income of US farmers, plunging by 16 percent last year, went back to the same level of that 10 years ago when financial crisis broke out. American Soybean Association, American Apparel and Footwear Association and US Consumer Technology Association have all expressed the concern that the additional tariffs would only hurt US farmers, US enterprises and US consumers
Washington is not capable of moving manufacturing back to the US as it turns its back on the laws of industry transfer and international labor division.
Backwardness won’t help, especially in the US, said German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. To produce the commodities it used to import from other countries, the US has to regain a huge labor force. However, many regions of the country are currently suffering from a lack of human resource.
Economic data of the US also heralded potential risks. Manufacturing output declined 2.1 percent in the first quarter from a year ago, and the monthly performance dropped by 0.5 percent this April.
What will the US obtain by interfering with global industrial chain with its bullying practices? Nothing but the destruction of its own image.
Washington always likes to brag about its sense of international responsibility, but it has severely damaged the world trade orders and global public products by its wide provocation of trade wars.
The World Trade Organization has slashed global trade growth forecast for 2019 from 2.6 percent from 3.7 percent, the lowest in the recent three years. In indicates that the US never cares about its due responsibilities, but has set a “recession trap” for the world.
Even American economists refused to accept the remarks and practices of certain US politicians, saying the anti-globalization moves under the banner of protecting domestic interests and laborers will not contribute any constructive solution, but damage the international image that the country has long maintained.
The US is going too far on the road of anti-globalization. On the contrary, China, fulfilling its responsibilities and with its commitment to globalization, is sending positive signal that the country will always act as a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, and an upholder of the international order.
China’s openness is not forced, but a proactive decision that injects certainty to the world standing at a “crossroad”. History will eventually reveal who upholds justice, follows moral code and wins people’s support.
“The trend of the world is surging forward. Those who follow the trend will prosper, and those who go against it will perish,” said Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the pioneer of China’s democratic revolution. A country is destined to lose if it goes against the trend of time, no matter how powerful it is.
Today’s world village is no longer a primitive tribe, and the days when isolation worked has long gone. Any attempt to channel the waters in the ocean back into isolated lakes and creeks is simply not possible.
History has proved, and will once again prove that the ones rejecting the world will end up being objected by this world. We hope the US officials can understand that there is no future for anti-history practices.
(Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by People’s Daily to express its views on foreign policy)
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