Comparative Analysis Of The Views Of Donald Trump And Xi Jinping On Globalization
Donald Trump and Xi Jinping hold largely varying opinions of Globalization and the nature of its implications. By looking at both president’s stances on the matter and comparing the key differences between the two, I shall make a decision on which position is most preferable.
With regards to Globalization, Trump paints an overall negative picture on the liberal economic system. Trumps’ main argument was that Globalization was the sole cause of issues arising in America such as weak infrastructure and inner city crime. Trump believes that America’s wealth is being taken directly out of the country and spent on foreign states and international bodies. As reiterated by Chu “trump has called Nato ‘obsolete’” and threatens to leave unless other members begin taking some of the financial burden off of the United States. President Trumps policy on Globalization is to enforce protectionist methods such as higher taxes on imported goods as a way to combat the negative affects. He aims to create a better environment for American companies such as Ford and Walmart, in order for them to grow their wealth.
In regards to Globalization, Trump aims to strengthen his nation states security whilst improving jobs and wages for Americans in order to achieve “national rebuilding”. He has decided to take the complete opposing view to Globalization and instead encourages the motto of “buy American and hire American” as a way to create a form of isolationism and protectionism around the USA, as seen after the Cold War. In comparison, President Xi Jinping takes a largely differing view to that of Trump, as highlighted through his keynote speech at Davos in 2017. Jinping largely believes globalization is a positive entity throughout the world, whilst admitting that it is a “double edged sword” due to some of the negative impacts it can create, he believes its positives are reason enough to far outweigh its issues. In terms of his policy, he largely advocates for the features of free trade, liberalism and interconnectedness to be adopted by nation states across the world. Believing that nation states should focus on the development of their own people whilst working together for global prosperity, supposing that countries will have more to lose by isolating themselves from trade with the rest of the world.
As expressed by Mason, one of the main features of free trade from economists such as Rostow’s orthodox model is free trade as “in the long run, trade makes everyone better off, by allowing countries to specialize according to their comparative advantage”. It is likely Jinping would fundamentally agree with this due to the fact globalization has created “billions of dollars of wealth for china”. Whilst often admitting the dauntingness of globalization, particularly for smaller, developing nations, Jinping takes the stance that countries must take the risk and enter into economic Globalization in order to reap its benefits.
In terms of Globalization, Jinping depicts China as a nation with its arms wide open, welcoming all other states as equals to join as trading partners, he claims that “China is leaving its door open” in order to welcome global partnerships and integration. The first key difference between Trump’s western USA and Jinping’s eastern empire is wealth. Jinping strongly believes that Globalization including low trade tariffs, open borders and specialization (thus creating comparative advantage) is the only way all states can become wealthy. As reiterated in the financial times article “Mr Xi’s appearance at Davos highlighted the Chinese governments increased confidence about economic prospects at home”. Trump on the other hand is adamant that Globalization drains the wealth of the United States to foreign nations. Trump believes Globalization forces the USA to spend so much money on global bodies such as NAFTA that it forgets about those living at home in poverty. Both presidents also differ on the topic of whether Globalization creates or destroys strength. Jinping expresses that through economic Globalization all countries are on a level playing field as no single country can exploit another through large import taxes, thereby enabling developing nations to have a stronger foothold on the international stage. He believes that Globalization allows countries to strengthen themselves whilst simultaneously raising up the nations around them too.
In opposition, Trump strongly takes the view that Globalization makes a state inherently weaker. As defined by Heywood, Globalization involves states pooling “their sovereignty by working together”. It is likely Trump would see this pooling of sovereignty as a weakness to America due to the fact they are the worlds leading economy and are used to being the global hegemon. Trump thereby believes that Globalization makes a nation state weaker as it diverts the wealth and attention from its citizens, to elsewhere. In conclusion, it appears that neither Trump or Xi Jinping are contemplating backing down in regards to their approach to the Global economy. Nevertheless, in light of today’s global issues such as terrorism and climate change, it seems that Xi Jinping’s stance on Globalization is the most preferable. As stated by the Chinese president himself “Economic Globalisation is the natural progression as technology advances and humans develop”. We unavoidably live in a borderless world where global issues require global solutions, if all states were to isolate themselves from the rest of the world in order to create a sense of ‘economic nationalism’ global issues would never be tackled as they would fall under the ‘tragedy of the commons’.
Xi Jinpin’s argument that Globalization makes states more equal, holds weight as through regional trading Blocs such as ASEAN, Globalization allows for the equality and strengthening of weaker, developing nations such as the BRIC’s, meaning that dominating nations cannot exploit these states through high import taxes and trading tariffs. Trump’s approach to Globalization believes the nation state has nothing to gain from it. His approach to focus inwards on his own nation, alongside the attempt to block immigration flow is a repressive stance on the matter. Through his position of globalization being largely based on foreign individuals and nations draining the USA’s wealth, it has created a large amount of racist legitimacy within America which in turn has caused many US citizens to draw parallels between globalization and domestic poverty alongside terrorism. Through liberal economics’ “international trade allows countries to specialize according to their inherent capabilities” which is one of the reasons Xi Jinping encourages Globalization as a way for all countries to benefit.
Overall, President Xi Jinping’s position is far more preferable as his belief in a state with welcoming open arms, transparency and interconnectedness, holds for a far more promising future than a state who cares only for the benefit of its own people, isolates themselves from the rest of the world, and prioritizes their own needs before anyone else’s, as seen within Donald Trumps position over Globalization.
