Europeans look to China as global partner, shun Trump's US

[JohnnyRingo]

It looks like Trump's ham fisted blundering has turned America First into America Last. This may never get turned around.
Way to own the libs, Moran.

Europeans Look To China As Global Partner, Shun Trump’s US

PARIS (AP) — When France’s president wants to carry European concerns to the world stage to find solutions for climate change, trade tensions or Iran’s nuclear ambitions, he no longer calls Washington. He flies to Beijing.

President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to China this week suggests that the United States risks being sidelined on the global stage under President Donald Trump. One moment spoke volumes: Chinese President Xi Jinping sampling French wines, which Trump’s administration recently slapped with heavy new tariffs.

Macron portrayed himself as an envoy for the whole European Union, conveying the message that the bloc has largely given up on Trump, who doesn’t hide his disdain for multilateralism.

Just as the Trump administration formally launched the process of pulling out of the 2015 Paris climate agreement , France and China issued a “Beijing call” on Wednesday for increased global cooperation in fighting climate change and better protecting biodiversity. Both countries have deplored the U.S. withdrawal.

“One country’s isolated choice can’t change the course of the world. It only leads to marginalization,” Macron said.

While China’s president tasted French wines and high-quality beef at an import fair in Shanghai, Macron was pushing for a broader opening of the Chinese market to European products.

“I think he discovered Languedoc wine. He wasn’t familiar with it, he liked it. He tasted a Burgundy and a classic Bordeaux wine,” Macron told reporters.

Xi said the two leaders were sending “a strong signal to the world about steadfastly upholding multilateralism and free trade, as well as working together to build open economies.”

During his first state visit to China in January 2018, Macron vowed to return every year in an effort to establish “mutual trust.”

Since then, Xi has travelled to France, when China signed an agreement in March to buy 300 aircraft from European plane maker Airbus.

This time, Macron travelled east, bringing with him an ambitious agenda that includes establishing a joint stance on reforming the World Trade Organization, fighting climate change and saving the nuclear accord with Iran.

After Trump pulled the U.S. out of the 2015 U.N. nuclear pact, France and China reiterated their support for the hard-fought deal both countries had helped negotiate.

<snip>

Eswar Prasad, a Cornell University economist and former head of the International Monetary Fund’s China division, said “the Trump administration’s antipathy to multilateralism, its repudiation of many international agreements, and hostility toward even longstanding allies, have all eroded U.S. economic and geopolitical influence.”

“The U.S. is now seen by other countries as an unreliable and untrustworthy partner, leaving them to maneuver around the U.S. by striking bilateral and multilateral deals that protect and advance their own interests,” Prasad said.

More here:

https://apnews.com/9c75a169944e4ff7ba4fb4d2617b8445

[Turbineguy]

1. Given the latency of such things

we may not see the effect of that until after the 2020 election. By which time this could be reversed.

[Blue_true]

4. I agree. If we defeat Trump in November 2020, the whole dynamics worldwide changes.

The world will be celebrating harder than us and welcoming us back.

[JohnnyRingo]

6. Deals made today by the EU will not be undone

..just because we gave Trump the boot.

These are economic pacts are being made without us. There's no reason Europe or China would want us to just jump in on their trade agreements. They may not need us for anything.

[Blue_true]

9. Good points. But the EU has trust issues with China.

I believe that once we are sane again, the EU will creep toward us. It won't undo deals, but it will work with us more.

I am more concerned about China outflanking us below our southern border and even in the Caribbean. China has been active in Central and South America and even in Mexico during the entire Trump era, that country is even in the Bahamas helping there. We really need to develop a strong economic pact with South and Central America and the Caribbean nations, if China blocks us there, it basically comes close to isolating us.

[JohnnyRingo]

5. I'm not so sure.

According to the article, Macron is currently working with China on behalf of the entire EU. Economic deals and pacts made now are a matter of leaving the US behind. I don't see how the European Union sees that we changed administrations and asks if we want a piece of their economic action.

This isn't something that can be fixed with an "oops, our bad".

[Wounded Bear]

2. "America First" means "America Alone"...

It's pretty simple, really.

[pangaia]

3. china should be shunned as a partner in anything.,.

Among a gazillion other human abuses, just LOOK what they are doing to Hong Kongers..

It is sickening, and is/will get worse.. much worse...

Hong Kongers are brave people who love what democracy they have and will not go down easily !!!!

[Oregon1947]

7. This article is a joke, China is one of the worst human rights/environmental abusers..NM

nm

[JohnnyRingo]

8. Indeed, China is a socially oppressive regime.

But like all dictatorships, it can be very efficient. China found itself globally embarrassed by polluted skies at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Long shots of The Birdcage, the main venue in Beijing, were shamefully hazy with smog. China immediately granted over two trillion dollars in initial investment to address the problem. In a state of totalitarianism there was no red tape or debate. It was ordered from the top and done.

In those short ten years, China has found itself at the forefront of clean energy technology. Admittedly, it wasn't borne out of concern for climate change, but to clean up after decades of industrial pollution, much like California in the '70s.

Now if one starts a solar project here they must go to China to import the PV cells.Those giant windmills that litter the outskirts of major metropolises? Made in China. We don't see them here, but China also leads the world in electric vehicles. A side result is employment in engineering and manufacturing, bringing with it a new class of Chinese consumer. China is now seeing an economic and social renaissance much like America in the '50s.

Now the EU is working without us to tap into this new emerging market to trade their products. Macron is cutting deals that we likely will never be a part of. In that way Trump's bumbling has set us back by a measure of generations.