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From Kissinger-Trump Meeting to APEC to US-China Cooperation

11/26/2016

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Dr. Wordman

Abstract
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Trump’s victory was a surprise worldwide. Even Henry Kissinger was surprised; he thought Hillary Clinton would win. Trump is now busy assembling his cabinet but he has found time to meet with Dr. Kissinger to pick his brain. There are a lot of challenges ahead of Trump. APEC, a successful economic development cooperation forum for Asia Pacific nations is held in Peru this month; the APEC leaders are waiting to see how Trump will shape his trade policy among many other issues dealing with US regional neighbors. While Japan is concerned about her defense treaty with the U.S., the Chinese leader offers cooperation to Trump in forging the US-China relationship. Cooperation needs specific actions. An US-China Infrastructure Development Conference seems to be an appropriate initiative to kick off.   

 
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Dr. Kissinger is not only well known for his effort assisting Nixon to make their historical visit to China opening her door to the world but also known as a statesman well versed in international affairs and diplomacy. He has written many books about the world, China and international conflicts. In his giant autobiographic volume about his service in the White House, he has shown that he is a very perceptive, meticulous and honest person from the way he described the events and personalities he dealt with in his tenure assisting President Nixon in the White House. Kissinger was honest about his misjudgment on the election outcome during an interview by Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic on 11/10/2016. In that interview, he was asked whether he will be meeting with Trump, he said, "I will not reach out to him, but that has been my approach to every president since I left office. If he asks me to come see him, I will." Then upon Jeffrey's last question, he offered Trump his advice to reflect and analyze to demonstrate that he (Trump) is on top of the known challenges and the nature of their evolution. Of course, this is the proper response a statesman should make, offering the President-Elect a polite invitation to meet with a suggested agenda. 
 
The fact Trump is meeting with Kissinger on 11/17/2016, within a week of the above interview, suggests that Trump is a humble leader anxious to absorb whatever wisdom a veteran diplomat and statesman can offer him. On 11/17, Trump had a very busy schedule meeting eight guests starting with Henry Kissinger, then South Carolina Governor, Nikki Haley, Representative Jeb Hanvarling, Florida Governor Rick Scott, General Jack Kane, Oracle CEO Safra Catz, Admiral Michael Rogers, Former Cincinnati Mayor Ken Blackwell. Trump had to squeeze Abe Shinzo, the Japanese Prime Minister (who was anxious to be the first foreign head of State to meet Trump) into an evening meeting. There was no statement issued about the Abe-Trump meeting other than Abe's remark to the press, "the U.S. and Japan will be able to maintain a relationship of trust." Japan's concern about the US-Japan Defense Treaty is understandable in view of Trump's America First political philosophy. Whether or not the U.S. will interfere in the China-Japan Diaoyu Island dispute may become the real test case for the Trump Administration.
 
The Kissinger-Trump meeting was to talk about 'Events and Issues Around the World' and focused on Russia, China, Iran and EU as reported by the Hill quoting a statement, "President-elect Trump and Dr. Kissinger have known each other for years and had a great meeting. They discussed China, Russia, Iran, the EU and other events and issues around the world," the statement reads; “I have tremendous respect for Dr. Kissinger and appreciate him sharing his thoughts with me,” Trump said, according to the statement. Dr. Kissinger was also interviewed by Fareed Zakaria on CNN after his meeting with Trump although disappointing to Zakaria, Dr. Kissinger did not elaborate on any content of his conversation with Trump. Kissinger has interacted with five Chinese leaders for forty years, it is almost impossible that Kissinger could give Trump a core dump about China in one meeting. We would expect that so long Kissinger can keep his health (he is 93 years old) in shape, he will continue to make contribution to the Administration on foreign policies. 
 
Kissinger was surprised that Hillary Clinton lost the election and he remarked that the foreign countries were shocked about Trump's victory. Trump's hostility towards free trade was very explicit on his campaign trail. Hence, there is no surprise, in the 2016 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum held in Lima Peru this month (Summit to begin on 11/19-20/2016), the minds of the world leaders are all on Trump while Obama is attending APEC for the last time. He will not be promoting the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) since he has already decided not to send TPP to US Congress for ratification. Both Trump and Clinton had opposed TPP during their presidential debates and campaign speeches thus its death had been prescribed. Obama probably would not be comfortable to field the questions about the new US administration's trade policy since Trump is yet to translate his campaign rhetoric to concrete policies. 
 
Trade issues are very complex involving not only foreign trading partners but also our fifty states with different interests. Trump has attacked NAFTA and threatened a trade war with Mexico, Canada, China and the likes by raising tariff against their imports and designating China as a currency manipulator, but he may not be able to implement any effective solutions. For example, 48 out 50 states have either Canada or Mexico as their leading trading partner under NAFTA, therefore, it means tearing up NAFTA may be a politically impossible task. Regarding waging a trade war with China, neither side will win. Limiting imports or raising tariffs will not bring back manufacturing jobs since they were lost decades ago. In some industries such as garment or some other light manufacturing, low-skill, low wage jobs are actually moving away from China to other country like Vietnam for lower cost labor. On the other hand, China can retaliate on imports from the U.S. hurting our industry such as Boeing jets, high-tech products or American made high-end automobiles.
 
Trump as a king of real estate is most likely to succeed in accelerating a domestic infrastructure upgrade program. He was right to point that our airports, highways, bridges, transportation hubs, and shipyards are behind times compared to many countries including particularly China. He was also right to say that we need to entice U.S. corporations to bring their cash stashed abroad avoiding taxes back to homeland to stimulate economic growth. It seems that the solution to trade issue lies in the domestic policies such as business regulations and tax policies. We have to make the U.S. a competitive, business friendly environment to compete globally.
 
The Chinese leader Xi Jinping has congratulated Trump for his victory and called him on the phone for a conversation. In talking to Trump, Xi has mentioned four times the word cooperation for forging a more friendly and productive US-China relationship. It seems that in order to achieve cooperation China (and the U.S.) should take some specific actions. One example comes to mind which can be initiated immediately is to organize a US-China Infrastructure Development Conference. The agenda of this conference should contain business, finance and technology matters in 'infrastructure building' in both countries and in the One Belt One Road (OBOR) program where both nations can cooperate and bring forward their contributions. Certainly, there are cooperation opportunities in many other domains. As citizens, we look forward to seeing such initiatives to be taken up by both countries.

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Trump Movement, Phenomenon and Victory - Post Election Analysis on Why, How and What

11/26/2016

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Dr. Wordman
​
Abstract
 
Trump won the Presidential Election to be inaugurated as the 45th President of the U.S. a surprise to not only many Americans but also many folks worldwide. This column has been following this election closely from the primary to conventions to debates and finally to the election.  As hundreds of post-election analyses are surfacing in the media, this column makes a comprehensive review of the Trump movement, phenomenon and victory in three parts: (I) Why Trump represented a movement and a phenomenon? (II) Why and How Trump won the Election? And (III) How and What Does the Trump Victory Mean to the U.S. and the World? There was a lot to learn from this election.

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Trump has become the President-elect to be the 45th President of the U.S. and to take office on 1/20/2017. This column has published a number of articles about the 2016 presidential race, the candidates, their campaigns, party conventions and 'A Citizen's Open Letter to the Next President of the U.S.' in anticipation of the outcome of the election. Making prediction on Presidential election is fun but not as useful as post-election analysis on the election process, the winning campaign, the voting and non-voting public and especially the possibility of improving our future Presidential elections. As hundreds of post-election analyses are surfacing in the media, I beg my readers' pardon for using a boastful title to catch your attention. I will try my best to live up to your expectation.
 
In this space-limited column, it is a challenge to do justice to the title on why, how and what. Therefore, I must condense my comments to bullet form to convey maximum information and let readers mull them in their own mind under the following three headings on why, how and what.
 
I. Why Trump represented a movement and a phenomenon?
 
1.           Trump is smart, paid his tuitions in politics his way, donated to both parties, supported many campaigns and then ran for elections himself and learned plenty of the American political system. Trump carefully studied the people and determined to represent them; hence his campaign for Presidency was a movement and the silent majority became his loyal followers and created a phenomenon.
2.           Real Trump: Despite of his flaws and what the media’s selective reporting, Trump was a handsome youth excelled well, a bold, shrewd and successful businessman, a best-seller writer and publisher, and a popular TV showman. Trump has a beautiful family with well groomed children. He is a doer (accomplished tough NY city projects). His political ambition developed after he amassed a fortune, unlike career politicians using solely political ambition to make a fortune. The real Trump is a loving, kind and generous individual and a frank, outspoken and fearless person.
3.           Trump recognized a few right things, anger and fear, stress and despair and disappointment in government in the people and listened to them on their frustrations; he improved his campaign as time progressed whereas Clinton ignored grass-root signals, kept up with the same message in synch with biased mainstream media and never improved her campaign tactics. She paid more attention to the rich and powerful than to the grassroots.
4.           Trump’s messages were continuous and consistent with personal follow-up in twits (a huge number of followers), even though not in eloquence.
5.           Voting for Trump is voting against war. This notion emerged during and after the debates where Clinton appeared to defend the war and will have more military actions whereas Trump uttered tough stand on foreign issues without committing specific action. For example, The U.S. will continue to be in Asia for a long time and we will defeat ISIS.
6.           Yes, Trump created a movement, but it is not a revolution but a restoration to true American conservative capitalism, American first, which resonated with the common Americans, the slogan, Make America Great Again sounds more honest than Clinton’s Together We Will Be Strong.
7.           Clinton put fuels to Trump's movement and other Republican candidates failed to see the sign of silent anger especially the white middle class - feeling poor and neglected. The more the media and Clinton be littled Trump, the more they fueled the angry flame. Trump became the lone target and he reacted with his anger and earned a martyr image.
8.           Even the usually subdued Chinese Americans got excited by the movement. Usually the young generation Chinese Americans identify with Democrats; their action will overwhelm their parents' votes. But this time more Chinese Americans broke silence and spoke. They identified with the Trump phenomenon. In the 2016 election, more Chinese Americans left the Democratic Party line they usually identified with.
9.           California Democrats sponsored SCAS education bill (2013) limiting college entrance to be proportional to population in the state definitely benefitting White, Latino and Black over Asian Americans. The Race Data Disaggregation Bill (2016 CA Democrat introduced) further angered Chinese, Japanese and Korean Americans who were suspicious about the bill’s motive.
10.       Obama accepted 5 million illegal immigrants (interpreted, although incorrectly, as to get votes for Democrats) whereas Trump took a firm anti-illegal immigration stand and at the same time an anti-color bias position.
11.       Trump received too many unfavorable media reporting in contrast to media being mute on anything negative about Clinton (plenty in her 30 years of political career). An amusing phenomenon in this election: New York Times made biased reporting and apologized after the election.
12.       America does not have a uniform value system despite of the American elite waving the flag of political correctness. There are classes and different views clearly shown by the Presidential campaign started two years ago. Trump’s defying political correctness hit a chord. For example, Berkeley campus phenomenon and Harvard student’s observation: no one can say anything opposing Clinton or supporting Trump, it would not be politically correct – this fueled the anger of the silent majority.
13.       Politically correct attitude and arrogance exposed hypocrisy to people. For example, Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, a gay, made a speech supporting Trump and got excommunicated by Clinton supporters denying him a gay.
14.       Old Democrats despised Clinton’s past deeds and hawkish world view. Democrats became party of war opposite to the Kennedys' beliefs. For example, Adam Walinsky, former Assistant of the Kennedys, came out to denounce Clinton and support Trump: Trump dared to say the truth and not being afraid of generals or the activists.
15.       Democratic Party is no longer a party of working class; it did nothing about wages, stood by free trade harming the blue collars, and focused on fund raising from the rich and powerful and painting a false economic picture. For example, former Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich’s article: the public see the link of power and wealth and declining wages undermining democracy.
16.       Online media ‘trumped’(term in bridge game) traditional media. Despite of a fairly well orchestrated mass media behind Clinton, the Trump team outperformed in online media and twitter communication to voters and small donors, keeping them informed all the way to the finishing line. Also see below how Cambridge Analytica helped Trump to win.
17.       Trust in Government and current administration dropped. (2007 UN study, over 40 years, developed democratic governments, trust in government continuously dropped, even Sweden and Norway is dropping since the 90's) Shown by US Gallop polls, since 70's trust drops in 12 out of 17 institutions, banks, congress, president, schools, media and church, this distrust and fear for the worse are the basic undercurrent that tilted the election towards the political outsider Trump.
18.       Trump phenomenon is the reaction of middle class Americans to attacks on their values by the intellectual and academic communities. Trump had the hunch how big the anger was there and he led and ride with the movement.
 
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II. Why and How Trump won the Election?
 
1.           Even though Trump was not using all the politically correct vocabulary, he resonated with the angry silent majority. He spoke what they did not dare to speak under the political correctness shroud. Then in the course of debates and rallies, Trump spoke and listened and was able to amplify the resonating emotions and built a loyal group of followers which grew day by day while Trump team kept them informed and maintained contacts along the way.
2.           Media ignored the true public and focused on a fake public favoring the activists’ agenda. (Even polls were conducted on ‘fake’ public) Trump took a gamble to fight Clinton and the media at the same time and linked them together with the word ‘crooked’. The word stuck!
3.           Clinton and media over played the woman card, not only annoyed the male but even some of the women who did not wish to be viewed as victims who needed protection or affirmative action. Clinton’s own image as a tough fighter having no glass ceiling whatsoever just did not lend any credit to the woman movement – most women want glass ceilings in their workplace removed but the White House did not really have a glass ceiling. Her nomination was the proof.
4.           Clinton also over played the LGBT issue and unavoidably tied it to the abortion issue, thus ‘having no baby and killing baby’ created a difficult position further divided the women voters and most critically lost the conservative religious groups. The continuous attack on Trump regarding his past behavior towards women backfired when Clinton and Trump were put on the same ethic scale.
5.           Rumors can help but also can backfire. Organic and mainstream media generated plenty of rumors but rumors need time to brew or to get clarified. One example of an inconsequential rumor is a quote attributed to former U.S. Attorney General, Janet Reno: “Donald Trump will never be the U.S. President in my lifetime”. She died on 11/7/2016. So the rumor had no time to produce any effect on Trump’s victory. Plenty of rumors and truth were derived from Wiki Leak on Clinton’s deleted emails; they definitely had enough time to do damage to Clinton.
6.           Primary to Trump is like Miss USA pageant and talent show, his experience is no match by Jeb, Ted, Mario, etc. The exchanges of personal attacks did not hurt Trump. For example, Picture of Mrs. Cruz vs Mrs. Trump was a clever way to respond to the ‘semi-nude’ professional model pose of Mrs. Trump used in campaign ad by his opponent.
7.           Trump has selected Mike Pence (born June 7, 1959 Christian, Conservative Congressman from Indiana) as his running mate who has the right temperament and ideology to support Trump. Pence had done a great job in the campaign winning supporters. Tim Kaine, the Democrat VP nominee flip-flopped on the abortion issue which did not help Clinton’s campaign.
8.           The biased mainstream media was somewhat if not largely responsible for creating the Trump Phenomenon and victory. Trump took advantage of online media and did an end run on the traditional media. This will have very significant impact on how and what kind of media will be used in our future elections. 
9.           Trump’s daughter Ivanka made a powerful and moving speech at the Republican Convention which was viewed by millions of American voters. So did the rest of the Trump family, they earned an up-right impression from the American public.
10.       Email-gate and WikiLeaks haunted Clinton throughout her race.  On March 16, 2016 WikiLeaks launched a searchable archive for 30,322 emails and  email attachments sent to and from Hillary Clinton's private email server while she was Secretary of State. Out of a total of 50,547 pages of documents span from 30 June 2010 to 12 August 2014. 7,570 of the documents were sent by Hillary Clinton. The emails were made available in the form of thousands of PDFs by the U.S. State Department as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request. The final PDFs were made available on February 29, 2016. The founder of WikiLeak, Australian, Julian Assange (who came to global prominence in 2010 when WikiLeaks published a series of leaks, allegedly provided by Chelsea Manning, an army soldier court-marshaled for disclosing military documents. These leaks included the Collateral Murder video (April 2010). Assange had been targeted by the FBI but he escaped to Ecuador under political asylum and continued exposing Clinton’s deleted email incriminating her throughout the campaign to the last day prior to election.
11.       FBI Director James Comey who investigated Clinton’s email issue, gave her a pass then reopened the investigation eleven days before the election and then gave her a second pass on Sunday barely two days before the election day. The Trump team seized the opportunity in every campaign rally. Clinton blamed the FBI Director for losing her campaign momentum in the last stretch but the fact that she never apologized nor admitted any guilt on the email-gate might have influenced lots of voters to vote for Trump.  
12.       Trump is a great Twitter and the Trump campaign out performed Clinton's in email, Facebook and Twitter. Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz donated $20M to Democratic groups to stop Trump but Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook Founder and CEO, defended Peter Thiel, his board member, for supporting Trump. Zuckerberg and Facebook should have seen the data change on the social media regarding Trump phenomenon and possible a sign of victory. Now Peter Thiel is on the Trump transition team which will definitely not hurt Facebook at all.
13.       During Bill Clinton’s era the union membership is about 22% and now only 12% of the labor force, thus losing bargaining power against corporations. Democrats buried their heads in the sand and did nothing for workers. They were the majority of angry Trump supporters.
14.       Trump's good personal stories (charity and generosity, for example, he helped a distressed widow/Mom to avoid bank's foreclosure on her home) outweighed his bad manners or big mouth. Another example, 2006 Ms USA Tara Conner credits Trump for helping her to kick the drug addiction which quashed the story that he called 1996 Ms Universe Alicia Machado Ms Piggy for whatever reason.
15.       George Soros was identified as a promoter of color revolutions and a shark in the currency and stock market and he had a close tie with the Clinton's. Soros’ money and color revolution tainted Clinton’s image. Post election, some people even questioned why the Clintons wore purple at her concession speech, purple revolution?
16.       Chinese Americans, especially mature age elites, for the first time mobilized in support of Trump on immigration and traditional values and they shouted: we vote for policies not personalities. For example, the group Chinese Americans for Trump was started by California resident David Tian Wang (not yet a citizen but a campaigner for Trump). He had members in 30 states, and many had raised funds to send those airplane banners through their skies. The fly-banner effort started with a ‘Chinese-Americans for Trump’ member in Arizona, who is also a pilot.
17.       The popular vote is very close differing only by about 1% and the total vote is much less than 2012 election, but Trump won the electoral vote by 306:232. Trump team had far more accurate assessment and put the effort in the right states in the final week.
18.       Excellent work by Cambridge Analytica, which studied the voters and modeled disenfranchised new Republicans versus the old Republicans (Paul Ryan, Mitch Mcconnell and the party operatives…). Trump stood for the new Republicans, caring more about law and order, immigration, wages, jobs and deep contempt for the reigning political establishment (in both parties) rather than status quo for the party establishment.
 
 
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III. How and What Does the Trump Victory Mean to the U.S. and the World?

 
1.           Trump victory may seem to be a disappointment even failure to the Republic and Democratic parties, but in deeper and more rationalized analysis, Trump victory let the voting public vented their frustration and lessened their distrust of the party politics and party mechanism from nomination to primary to final election. Too many party elites were too righteous and shamelessly played sainthood in making judgments on personal flaws rather than listened to issues that were resonating with the voters. Hopefully the Republicans will appreciate Trump victory and correct their attitudes and forge behind him to make America great again. Hopefully, the Democrats will calm down and accept Trump victory with humility rather than anger or hatred through protests and mass demonstration. It is time for reflection not protest.
2.           Many issues Trump raised in his campaign would require policy changes and fiscal budget revamping. Pentagon’s budget was one of the items voters were concerned. Trump wanted America’s allies to pay more to the U.S. for station and presence helping their defense. The Pentagon may be faced with a reduction of budget or shifting more funds to R&D and military infrastructure investments if the allies do not substantially increase their contributions. Trump must learn quickly about the different agendas foreign states promote. Example, Why is Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo so eagerly flying to New York to meet with Trump. What is his agenda? To get Trump’s support for Abe’s revision effort of Japan’s pacifist constitution (even willing to pay more to the U.S. for defense) or permission to develop nuclear weapon or testing Mr. Trump’s plan about TPP? Hopefully Trump as a smart and great negotiator would decipher Abe’s eagerness (Abe is in no way in Trump’s league) and consider America’s interest first not just for the near future but for the long haul. History is the best lesson for international affairs. Trump’s statement: “The U.S. will continue to be in Asia for a long time” can be interpreted in very different ways by China, Japan, Korea and ASEAN. We will just have to watch what it really means.
3.           Internationally, Trump's victory surprised many traditional media and public elites but this surprise will probably generate some positive effects. For one, this election, more so than the Brexit outcome, underlined the sacred claim in democracy that people are given opportunity to express their wish under a given democratic system. The American electoral system protects state(regional) interest and binds the federation. The majority of electoral votes represent a fair choice and they uphold justice rather than the growing belief that popular votes can be manipulated by money hands and elites. Trump, spending much less money than the Clinton machine by a wide margin about 1:2 ratio, and yet won the election and gave democracy the needed adrenaline. One should also recognize that the Internet and social media offer the public a fairer tool to communicate and express oneself than the traditional media which is now proven to be more vulnerable to be bought and controlled. This election will have lasting impact not only on American future elections but also elections worldwide; thus it may be remembered as his legacy even though he has not begun his US 45th Presidency. 
4.           China has always been an issue in the U.S. Presidential election. Both Clinton and Trump had bashed and blamed China for US domestic and world problems. The majority of the American voting public may not be very well informed and versed on the complex love-hate US-China relations, but the following four issues, South China Sea, trade war, currency war, U.S. Pivot to Asia Pacific policy (including North Korea and Japan’s militaristic ambitions and TPP) had reached sufficient public awareness level thanks to US and Chinese media. As proven by this election, the US mainstream media should not be relied on as the only controlling voice on issues. The internet organic media offered alternatives for justice. China has understood it and Trump has been a savvy Internet user and beneficiary of it. Trump will have to sift through the mainstream and organic media for public opinion in dealing with the four US-China issues currently on the table.       
5.           Trump’s victory came as a surprise and Trump’s transition team and future cabinet appointments are in the spot light. Appointing Mike Pence to be the Chairman of the transition team is a smart move and appointing Reince Priebus is a practical one (despite media’s disapproval that he had no government experience) simply because Trump needs a rolodex to run his administration interacting with the Congress. Reince is that useful rolodex on all Republican legislators and some democrats too before it is updated and replaced by a Trump’s own White House Rolodex. The media is not shy in making comments on hiring. One advice in hiring may be helpful is that don't load up with Ivy League resumes but pay attention to rural state university graduates who are likely less liberal, more conservative and understanding better the rural America problems. Regarding the Supreme Court Justice, Trump should pick a conservative, energetic, knowledgeable and youthful Justice to carry out the original intent of the constitution.
6.           Will this country be further divided? It is hard to say how the U.S. will change to from a 50:50 divided situation in terms of conservative versus liberal or left versus right. Post Trump victory, we may see the country tilting more conservative but left versus right may have to be redefined from the legacy definition. Is making America great or strong a ‘right’ or ‘left’ statement? The post-election protests although significant in numbers but they are on different issues. I guess most likely the demonstrations will pass with no one paying much attention to them.
7.           Will Trump make tax cuts? Yes, he will have to fulfill some of his campaign promises. Trump had a specific tax reduction plan, simplify seven tax rates to three, business, estate, dividend and capital gain tax reductions.  Trump must work with Congress to get tax reduction bills passed. Reince Priebus has his work cut out for him.
8.           The following has changed from speculation to prediction, that is, Trump will deal with illegal immigrants issue (building wall and deport illegal immigrant criminals), refuse to accept Muslim refugees (cut funding), repeal Obama Care (at least part of it), start infrastructure building (the stock market already rallied around that and healthcare), reduce taxes (the issue is which tax category to start with), and create jobs (industry elites will come around to Trump’s table soon).
9.           Media already speculated that the U.S. relation with Russia will improve. (not because of that Trump had a tie with Russia and Russia helped Trump to win as claimed by the media (that’s all baloney). The reason is more likely that Putin will make an effort to improve relationship with the U.S. and the U.S. will welcome it for the purpose of working against IS, solving Syria problem, reducing military spending etc. The improvement of US-Russia relation may not come at the expense of US-China relation as time and condition have changed from the Cold War era.
10.       Regarding China, lessen military pressure and confrontation, but continue economic pressure on China is likely Trump’s policy. There were numerous scenarios expressed by analysts, adding tariffs to reduce debt, even renege on debt, and ditch Taiwan (Paul Kane) to get something in return from China; but Trump needs time to digest these complex issues. My prediction is that nothing drastic will take place in his first year or two. Not like Clinton, Trump probably did not and is not thinking about a second term right now. Interestingly, in Xi’s phone call to Trump, Xi has mentioned four times the word, cooperation, which must have made an impression on Trump. If cooperation is less painful than confrontation, what would Trump choose?  Trump's first 100 days challenge will most likely be focusing on the domestic issues.
11.       Based on Trump’s world view and political philosophy, I venture to say that the new President of the U.S. may make a quick impact on the United Nations by letting the UN gaining power and be more effective in managing global affairs especially in the area of regional peace and stability, education, science and infrastructure building. 
12.       Will violence protest become a norm after presidential election and other elections? Over 200 incidences of hate or harassment occurred in a few days right after the election.  However, no concrete proposals on revising or fixing the election process have surfaced. I would like to voice a suggestion here. A rigid electoral counting method (Winner take all of congressional districts per state plus 2 per number of senate seat) is intended to protect small states with less population but hurts the minority population in large states (here minority means population in rural area but still can be larger than populations in small states) in large state, always losing to the majority population (city population) in every election. A simple amendment could be made to count the electoral votes of large states with population greater than the medium state population (~6.2 million) according to the voting split rather than by winner-take-all. For example, if New York had a split vote of 9 million to 7 million on two candidates then its electoral votes should be a split of 9:7 ratio rounding to whole numbers. This could be achieved easier by a federal mandate. 
13.       Did Trump strengthen or weakened the GOP? Trump woke up and strengthened GOP with his victory giving GOP control of both chambers. New Republicans want to crush the crony capitalism, need evenhanded support, and desire a transparent and accountable system where they can share rewards. Trump, not a career politician and party bureaucrat, is in a good position to really strengthen GOP in a fundamental way, but on the other hand, he may not want to do that if the old machine is too rusted requiring too much energy to repair. Trump did more in the campaign than Reagan did in his, hopefully the GOP party will rally around him to seek party reform for party’s future. With new Republicans encouragement, Trump will be more motivated to fix the party for the long haul. This is another domain where Reince Preibus may make a mark.
14.       Based on Trump’s campaign rhetoric some may say that the US Allies in Asia may have to defend themselves on security, especially the wealthy countries like Japan and South Korea, Japan and the Philippines already increased their military spending. However, a serious arms race in Asia is not necessarily to the best interest of the U.S. even though we may want to sell our surplus weapons. Trump’s asking US Asian Allies to pay more for defense should not be interpreted as the U.S. would be pulling out of Asia. Similarly so for Europe.
15.       Trump's negative view on trade issue with China and his positive remark he loves Chinese people presented an intriguing question: How or should he increase economic pressure on China? (Trump encouraged her beautiful grand-daughter Arabella to learn Chinese; a video of her went viral in China) Trump’s position on TPP actually will help China and consideration of joining AIIB as a good idea may just lead to a cooperative relationship with China as Xi appealed to Trump.
16.       Coincidentally, Trump just won his ‘Trump’ trademark lawsuit defending his trademark application in China right after he won the Presidential election. Chinese court reversed its ruling previously ruled against Trump favoring a Chinese claim. Perhaps we will see much more Trump buildings and objects in China very soon. 
17.       Will the Clintons face charges and go to jail? Jason Chaffetz, House Oversight and Government Reform committee may hold the key rather than the new FBI Director or Trump himself. Trump is likely to step back to make a decent gesture to forget about the email-gate.
18.       Will globalization take a back seat behind ‘America first’? It may not be a mutually exclusive situation in the area of economic development. America first cannot be a closed door policy in this day and age. It is more about using our funds wisely and more productively. The world is studying Trump phenomenon and victory and waiting to see his economic and foreign policy.  Kissinger has offered a good advice to Trump: To analyze and reflect to demonstrate that he is on top of the known challenges and the nature of their evolution. Again history offers lessons.
19.       Who is going to be the new Secretary of State, Defense secretary, National Security Czar, Attorney General, Supreme Court Justice, ….has occupied lots of media pages or screens. To my surprise, Giuliani had been vocal, such as signaled to build a gigantic military.  Trump had maintained his style, mysterious and vague, and let the transition team do their job. We expect the new team, no matter what their previous experiences were, will climb a learning curve to find a way to work as an effective team in the Trump Administration. The resumes of individuals will be less critical than the chemistry among people. With Trump’s experience as a successful CEO and a head of family having all children devoted to him, Trump is likely to be able to build a competent team, by hire and fire, quickly if necessary.
20.       There is a simple analysis in the organic media stating that Trump victory will make five losers (Japan, Germany, France, South Korea and Mexico) and five winners (Russia, North Korea, Israel, Turkey and China) in their relations with the U.S. Although the analysis is simple but it does have some logic. We certainly should keep a close watch on the future development of the relationship between the U.S. and these countries.    
 
In conclusion, Trump did recognize the anger in the silent majority, a movement needed a Champion. He seized the opportunity and turned the movement into a phenomenon. He did a lot of things right, but most critically he had his own pollsters and used the social media and Internet smartly. He beat not only his strong opponent, Hillary Clinton, successfully but also the biased mainstream media brilliantly and won the victory. He certainly has a lot of challenges lying ahead but his surprise victory puts him in a good position to make a fresh start, permitting a learning phase and a few resets and to achieve success as many of his supporters expecting. Trump may very well fulfill his promise to “Make America Great Again” and not at the expense of the world.
 

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Condition for US China Cooperation Leading to Better World (I. and II.)

11/19/2016

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Dr. Wordman
 
Abstract
 
If the U.S. and China could cooperate, it would produce mutual benefits and lead to a better world. However, meaningful US China cooperation could not happen unless the two countries develop a good relationship. Thus under what condition will the U.S. and China maintain a good relationship is a ket question. Among a broad range of issues in US China relations spanning across economy (commerce, investment and finance), national security (military, diplomacy and international affairs), industrial relation (technology, manufacturing, and market sharing) and cultural understanding (history, arts, communication, tourism and social behavior), the key issue that will dictate the US-China relation is the Cross-Strait relation or reunification (CSR). CSR has never been a Chinese domestic issue as it should be but a critical foreign affair troubling the US China relation and hindering their opportunity for close cooperation. Removing the CSR issue will shed the historical ‘China’ baggage the U.S. carried since the turn of 20th century, WWII, recognition of one independent China, Cold War and beyond. With the CSR dangling and influencing the U.S. China policy, the U.S. has not been able to carve out a clear-cut foreign policy towards China leading to mutual benefits and world prosperity. In order to remove this obstacle, understanding and solving the problems of CSR are essential. 
 

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Condition for US China Cooperation Leading to Better World – Part I
 
Among think tank analysts or common citizens, no one would reject the statement that if the U.S. and China could cooperate rather than fight against each other, the world would be much better off. However, among the opinions on prognosis of the future of US-China relations, there are clearly two camps. The Hawks seem to target China as the archenemy of the U.S. and believe in eventual war resulting from their irresolvable conflicts. The Doves seem to wish a friendly relation between the U.S. and China but have no clues why is their relation moving on a bumpy roller coaster yo-yoing from friendly gestures to hostility by their government’s conducts and handling of current events. The two great nations seem to be preparing war. Yet it is obvious that cooperation between the U.S. and China will lead to mutual benefits and better world and confrontation to mutual destruction and world disaster. Therefore, it is desirable to understand: Under what condition the U.S. and China can fully cooperate and resolve conflicts. Many in both camps have criticized the current US policies and mishaps, but offer little wisdom on how to reach the goal for mutual trust and cooperation. 
 
Nations always have conflicts, but great powers have unavoidable competitions in many areas and more complex conflicts of interests. The U.S. and China naturally have a broad range of issues in their relations spanning across economy (commerce, investment and finance), national security (military, diplomacy and international affairs), industrial relation (technology, manufacturing, and market sharing) and cultural understanding (history, arts, communication, tourism, and social behavior). In this essay we venture to claim that solving the Cross-Strait Reunification (CSR) issue is the most important of all conditions for building a sound US-China relation which will lead to mutual benefits and a better world.  We discuss below why the CSR issue will dictate the US-China relation, what is the logic and reasons for this claim and how we may achieve the condition for better relation and cooperation.
 
The CSR issue has never been treated as a Chinese domestic issue as it should be. Instead of leaving the CSR as China's internal problem, the U.S. considers the CSR issue her problem, elevating it as an international issue; thus, the US-China relation could not be maintained in a friendly manner. Presumably that the U.S. adopted such an approach with her national interests in mind, but that is a debatable point between the hawk and dove camps on China. What is clear though, two nations could not have a normal relationship if one nation does not respect the sovereignty of the other nation. Take Canada and Mexico, the two US neighbors, as examples. If the U.S. did not respect Canada's sovereignty over Quebec and treated Quebec's historical independence movement as her own problem and concern, would the U.S. and Canada have a nice and normal relationship? If the U.S. would send all the Mexican immigrants in the U.S. back to Mexico to establish a separate sovereign entity there, would Mexico and the U.S. maintain a friendly relation? The answers are sure no. The CSR issue is similar to the above hypothetical US-Canada and US-Mexico issues; why should the U.S. let the CSR spoil her relationship with China? What are the real national interest and the justification for the U.S. to interfere in the CSR issue?
 
The CSR issue has been a thorny issue for at least 71 years ever since the ending of the WW II. The CSR issue is actually more than a century old from a modern Chinese history perspective. In fact, the CSR has been an ancient Chinese sovereignty issue for several centuries. Taiwan was part of the ancient China (since the 15th century or earlier) from the traditional sovereignty point of view (discovery, occupation by residents of traders, farmers and/or fisherman and evidences such as documents, maps and other physical artifacts). However, the specific historical facts are not understood by the global citizens, including Americans. China's traditional sovereignty had been violated by the colonial invaders from the West (Dutch, British, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Germany, American, etc.) in the 19th and early 20th centuries. China was also a victim to the imperial invaders, Russia and Japan. China was the chief victim in Asia among her neighbors, Okinawa, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Indo-China and India. Taiwan unfortunately had a treacherous historical background being captured by the Dutch and recovered (1621-1641, Portuguese landed in 1517 and called it Formosa) then captured by the Japanese (1895-1945) and returned to China in 1945 after Japan was defeated and surrendered in WW II. China started her revolution seeking to establish a republic state but never completed it (from toppling the Qing dynasty to forming a republic nation, in 1911). Japan's intervention with invasions (the first Sino-Japan War, 1894-5 through the second Sino-Japan War, 1937-45, included the horrible 1937 Nanking Massacre) had thwarted the Chinese revolution throughout the entire 20thcentury resulting in a fractured China.
 
Post WW II, China was divided and intervened again by her two war allies turned into post-war rivals, the U.S. (supporting the KMT) and the Soviet Union (supporting the CCP). The ideological confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union influenced China’s unification and development and created the CSR problem existing up until today. Hindsight after the CCP embraced and abandoned the Soviet style communism and the KMT relinquished her authoritative governance to a two party democracy (KMT vs. DPP), the CSR should be a Chinese domestic issue rather than a legacy problem from the Cold War. The Cold War had ended in 1990. Taiwan and the Mainland each had gone through drastic experiences of successful economical development and advancement. Now the mainland China has become the world's second largest economy and Taiwan's economy has become an integral part of China’s economy. So why should the CSR remain an American business at all, under her One China Policy established since 1979?
 
  
Condition for US China Cooperation Leading to Better World – Part II

 
The CSR issue can be looked at from a geopolitical point of view. Taiwan, with her surrounding small islands situated in the Pacific Ocean, has a vital geopolitical importance to the Mainland China which can be easily understood. But why Taiwan is geopolitically important to others in the Pacific Ocean and beyond is bewildering, except (in one hegemony theory) someone intends to control Taiwan to contain China. Some countries may be concerned that the reunification may impact upon their national interests, but where is the justification of that concern? Some neighboring countries of China and the U.S. may assume that China may be an imperial invader; but historical evidence has shown otherwise. China will defend her sovereignty bitterly but she has not invaded her neighbors or anyone elsewhere. Based on the sovereignty argument discussed above, the CSR issue is a Chinese domestic issue, no one should interfere. Any interference would produce serious confrontation and destroy a normal cooperative relation. Assuming China to be an imperial invader is a false reasoning for interfering in the CSR issue; China has never been an aggressive invader or an eager meddler in international affairs. China had not taken any aggressive steps or adopted an urgent time table in resolving the CSR issue giving no one any reason to interfere with China’s CSR issue. If anyone did interfere, it would give China and the world the impression that there was an evil motive of thwarting China’s reunification. Unfortunately, the U.S. seems to have become the crucial factor in the solution of CSR.
 
The ‘China fear’ or ‘targeting China’ are really false policies if the goal is world peace and global prosperity. Economically, a stable and growing economy in China and in the U.S. will bring and assure global prosperity. By taking on an illegitimate sovereignty interference like CSR to suppress China’s growth can hardly be justified without being viewed as a trouble maker against China. There was no justification in creating the Taiwan Relation Act after the U.S. and China announced the joint Shanghai Communiqué which clearly spelled out the necessity of peaceful reunification. Unfortunately, the Taiwan Relation Act, although not binding the U.S. government, has been misused to turn CSR into an international issue and Taiwan a hotspot in Asia. A few neighbors of China are apparently following the US lead regarding CSR. With China's increasingly more transparent diplomacy and open collaborative global economical development programs, she is likely to allay those fears. The recent East China Sea and South China Sea turbulence are extensions of the false policies. They only strengthen China's resolve in settling the CSR problem with anxiety, possibly from no time table to a planned time table.
 
From the Cold War legacy, democracy and human rights were used as justification by the U.S. for intervention even regime change in foreign countries. But the results were not good; more wars were created and more social disasters resulted in the Middle East and Europe. Asia was spared until now; the ‘pivot to Asia’ seemed to create conflicts among nations and tension in the region. Hopefully, Asians can learn from the history and war events happened elsewhere and become smart enough to avoid being pushed into chaotic situations. The CSR issue can be examined also internally in Taiwan from human rights and democracy point of view. The internal complexities come from Taiwan's political struggle between political parties is a direct result out of her self-developed democracy and value system on human rights. One unfortunate phenomenon in Taiwan politics is that somehow politicians representing a small fraction of people in Taiwan can influence the majority through the faulty legislative system and the manipulative media. This phenomenon is exhibited in the social and national issues that have even been called out by the well-respected aging Buddhist, Xing Yun Da Shi. Taiwan’s politics has also twisted human rights of the aborigines, mainlanders and various factions of earlier settlers in Taiwan creating frictions among citizens. These internal complexities could be clarified eventually if external intervention from other countries would stop meddling.   
 
These internal complexities may also be compounded by people in Mainland China, due to their lack of understanding and sensitivity of the psychological changes of Taiwan people under their own value system. Conversely the Taiwan people under the external influence may have also misunderstood the psychological feelings of the Mainland people in their view of the CSR issue. The external influence from the U.S. may be represented by the China Relation Act and her inconsistent China policy but the external influence from Japan is her continued wishful thinking to have Taiwan as a part of Japan. Unfortunately this Japanese influence was deeply implanted in Taiwan through Lee Deng Hui, Taiwan’s President (1988-2000, born and educated under Japanese occupied Taiwan) who turns out to be a deep mole (expelled by KMT in 2001 for launching a Taiwan independence party opposing reunification) for Japan with a hidden agenda in opposing reunification and pushing Taiwan to be a part of Japan - an amazing political traitor story in modern China. Lee had also successfully cultivated his protégés, Chen Shui Bian (President 2001-2008) and the current President Tsai Ying Wen (2016-).
 
There were some Taiwan residents granted Japanese citizenship during Japan occupation and some Japanese remained in Taiwan after Japan surrendered at the end of WW II. Though a minority, they have been the source of Taiwan’s internal complexities. They were impressed by Japan's rapid recovery with the U.S.post WW II  "Occupation and Reconstruction" Plan (the Marshall Plan of the East) when Taiwan was in a very difficult economic situation, hence they have kept a strong pro-Japan sentiment. Similar to the sentiments of Japan’s right-wing faction represented by descendents of WW II participants in Japan (for example, Abe Shinzo, grandson of a charged WW II criminal), they deny and whitewash WW II history and brainwash young generations by revising textbooks. This internal problem expanded so fast in the past two decades was largely due to the deep mole, Lee Deng Hui and his proteges. The majority especially the young generations must understand and wake up from the decade long China bashing plot. The CS people in Taiwan and the Mainland both have a responsibility to tell the facts and truth to deal with this internal complexity to foster reunification. Will the truth prevail? It is very likely, since the world has begun to reexamine the history of WW II through commemorating the end of WW II. Based on the ancient and modern Chinese history, Taiwan should be and will be eventually reunified with the Mainland. 
 
After recognizing the internal and external problems of CSR, we can discuss what solution is there for solving the CSR issue. The ‘external intervention' was the main impediment of realizing CSR; the motives behind intervention were evil aimed against a United Single China. No question that both Mainland and Taiwan must resist the external intervention. Without the external intervention, the internal complexities can be simplified and dealt with in time. Lee Deng Hui is now 94 years old, his generation and deceitful influence will wear off soon. With global open internet and free communication, the younger generations will have opportunities to receive true facts and history despite of the current DPP administration’s independence push. The interaction of CS economic development and the creation of CS job opportunities will tighten CS relation and eventually cultivate a right condition for reunification. It makes great sense for the U.S. to stay away from interfering with CSR and focus on US China cooperation.
 
The solution for the CSR issue is actually quite straight forward, that is, to tell the truth about history, the WW II history and the ancient Taiwan history. The truth will reverse the white wash and misunderstanding of history which had generated mistrust, induced Japan to militarize again, and caused the U.S. and China to turn from allies to adversaries. The U.S. must reflect on The Marshall Plan and the Occupation and Reconstruction Plan where the U.S. offered genuine help to Europe and Japan and derived mutual benefits. The U.S. can draw lessons from that history and appreciate that offering of genuine help to China will yield mutual benefits as well. By adopting a strategy to raise the standard of living of the 1.3 billion Chinese through a cooperative plan, the U.S. will not only develop a genuine friendly relationship with China and her people but also a thriving US economy. The U.S. will gain benefits as she did post WW II in rebuilding Europe and Japan. By truly recognizing one China and removing the CSR issue, the U.S. can direct the Taiwan Relation Act to help reunification instead of impeding it (for example, stop selling arms to Taiwan to avoid an arms race). The U.S. should formulate a China policy based on the following logic: I. CSR is China’s sovereignty issue and China’s own internal problem, II. Truly honoring one China with no interference on CSR will lead to a friendly US-China relationship, III. A better US-China relationship will lead to genuine cooperation, and IV. US China cooperation will benefit not only the U.S. and China but also the entire world!

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