Getting lectured to by the Chinese
John Thornhill reports in the Financial Times that China doesn’t like the way people are bitching about globalization: Long Yongtu, the diplomat who negotiated China?s entry into the World Trade Organisation, has urged western governments to stop politicising trade and start telling their voters the truth about globalisation. He said that some politicians in Europe ...
John Thornhill reports in the Financial Times that China doesn't like the way people are bitching about globalization: Long Yongtu, the diplomat who negotiated China?s entry into the World Trade Organisation, has urged western governments to stop politicising trade and start telling their voters the truth about globalisation. He said that some politicians in Europe and North America had been blaming China for problems in their own economies that they had failed to tackle themselves. ?There are many misconceptions about globalisation in Europe and North America,? he said. ?Governments should not deliberately politicise trade and economic matters.? China and other developing nations in Asia did not like to be a scapegoat, he said on Saturday at the World Deauville Conference in France, which is designed to strengthen relations between Asia and Europe. ?We have to have more public education to understand that globalisation is unavoidable.? To which I say -- it would be a hell of a lot easier not to politicize trade with China if the government didn't a) intervene on a continuous basis to keep the yuan undervalued; and b) try to create companies that are global competitors but happened to be state-owned. [You're saying that these things are a big deal?--ed. I'm much less troubled than most of my readers on China's state interventions -- it's their inefficient policies, not ours. However, to ask Western governments to keep politics and economics separate when the Chinese state can't seem to do the same thing is a bit rich.] UPDATE: Based on other FT stories, I'd have to conclude that this exhortation has had exactly zero impact on either the United States or the European Union.
John Thornhill reports in the Financial Times that China doesn’t like the way people are bitching about globalization:
Long Yongtu, the diplomat who negotiated China?s entry into the World Trade Organisation, has urged western governments to stop politicising trade and start telling their voters the truth about globalisation. He said that some politicians in Europe and North America had been blaming China for problems in their own economies that they had failed to tackle themselves. ?There are many misconceptions about globalisation in Europe and North America,? he said. ?Governments should not deliberately politicise trade and economic matters.? China and other developing nations in Asia did not like to be a scapegoat, he said on Saturday at the World Deauville Conference in France, which is designed to strengthen relations between Asia and Europe. ?We have to have more public education to understand that globalisation is unavoidable.?
To which I say — it would be a hell of a lot easier not to politicize trade with China if the government didn’t a) intervene on a continuous basis to keep the yuan undervalued; and b) try to create companies that are global competitors but happened to be state-owned. [You’re saying that these things are a big deal?–ed. I’m much less troubled than most of my readers on China’s state interventions — it’s their inefficient policies, not ours. However, to ask Western governments to keep politics and economics separate when the Chinese state can’t seem to do the same thing is a bit rich.] UPDATE: Based on other FT stories, I’d have to conclude that this exhortation has had exactly zero impact on either the United States or the European Union.
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
More from Foreign Policy
Can Russia Get Used to Being China’s Little Brother?
The power dynamic between Beijing and Moscow has switched dramatically.
Xi and Putin Have the Most Consequential Undeclared Alliance in the World
It’s become more important than Washington’s official alliances today.
It’s a New Great Game. Again.
Across Central Asia, Russia’s brand is tainted by Ukraine, China’s got challenges, and Washington senses another opening.
Iraqi Kurdistan’s House of Cards Is Collapsing
The region once seemed a bright spot in the disorder unleashed by U.S. regime change. Today, things look bleak.
Sign up for Morning Brief
Foreign Policy’s flagship daily newsletter with what’s coming up around the world today. Delivered weekdays.
By submitting your email, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and to receive email correspondence from us. You may opt out at any time.
