US tariffs vs. Chinese supremacy: Can US soybean “Make America Great Again?”

China is the only country that defied President Trump's tariff and successfully brought the US to the negotiation table

- by Prof. Patrick Mendis

Prof. Patrick Mendis (left) with his high school friend in Minnesota, USA

MAGA agenda, which parallels the Communist Party's own ambitions of restoring China's past glory, known as the ‘great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.'" At the summit, President Xi Jinping also told President Trump: "I always believe that China's development should go hand in hand with your vision to make America great again.

China's targeted strategic retaliations and surgical "pressure points" on Trump's MAGA political base in the Midwest counties created the intended financial pain on soybean farmers. Indeed, China has learned from Trump's give-and-take "transactional" approach, executing a successful tactical operation in the American heartland. This combined with China's strategic calculus on global policymaking for supremacy. Yet Xi cleverly handed Trump a temporary winwin card to satisfy his voting bloc in the Midwest by resuming soybean purchases.

In the meantime, strategic Beijing has continued to heavily invest in soybean and other commodities in Argentina, Brazil, and elsewhere. In Washington, the president angered American soybean farmers and Republican senators by providing a $ 20 billion financial aid package to Argentina, whose soybean exports to China reduced buying from the United States.

History tells us that tariffs as a weapon in trade, especially in an increasingly interconnected global marketplace, risk backfiring. They also stand antithetical to the constitutional legacy of the US tariff policy.

The birth of the US republic resulted from the unpopular British tariffs that sparked widespread resistance in colonial America. These continuing protests culminated in the Boston Tea Party and ultimately the American Revolutiongiving birth to a progressive nation conceived by the European Enlightenment ideas of the founding fathers who were also inspired by the Chinese philosophy and culture.