8 Comments
Jul 13, 2018Liked by Bill Bishop

Here on the ground in Beijing, in my unscientific sampling of young local businesspeople I spend time with, I'm feeling a marked shift this week toward nationalistic war-mongering. Nothing like a trade war to rally the troops - i.e., the public here.

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Hi Bill. New member, but long time reader. Will there be a possibility to

search the archive for key terms? Those of us who conduct research about

China might appreciate being able to quickly hone in on articles you’ve

referenced. I for one would like to be able to use a simple search to

quickly find articles you’ve linked to in the past year regarding trade and

finance issues.

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Any outside pressure of this type (1. Trade war, 2. Rimpac exclusion of China based on SCS militarisation vs inclusion of Vietnam, which has more militarised islands, 3. Potential Chinese student exclusion Act, etc. ) only makes it easier for Chicom to have Chinese backing. The real power of the US is its softpower. That is being eroded at an accelerating pace in the eyes of mainland Chinese. You cannot hope to distabilise Chicom if over 1 billion people rally around it.

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China's official position might be to not attack Trump, but that doesn't stop the ordinary citizens saying what they think in some of the WeChat groups I am in. WeChat chats have two common themes - painting Trump as a child, and having total faith in China's leadership to steer the country through the battle.

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