Only consumers can save U.S.-China relationship
By now everyone has seen wrestler and “Fast & Furious” star John
Cena apologizing to the Chinese people. If you haven’t seen it, Cena does an interview, calls Taiwan a country and triggers mainlanders who say Taiwan is China. Perhaps nudged by the film producers, Cena begs for forgiveness in Mandarin.
Cena’s insta-bow to China pressure is part of a recent string of Americans apologizing for upsetting the Chinese, not because they love the Chinese, per se, but because the entities they work for are increasingly dependent on the Chinese consumer. They love China’s market. They want China’s money. The Chinese Communist Party could tell movie houses not to show the ninth installment of “Fast & Furious.” Then it’s game over for Cena’s new F9 movie. A dangerous precedent is being set.
If you think China will overtake the United States in terms of political influence and economic relevance, this should concern you. Put China’s extra-territorial censorship issue aside and consider this: We are moving from dependence on Chinese companies to make things for us — the clothes on your back, the shoes on your feet, the metals in your Ford Lightning car battery, the solar panels on your rooftop, probably your gym supplements and penicillin — to being dependent on their consumer market for growth.
China is everything. China is everywhere. Should this trend remain, the U.S. will be in the back seat not only in Asia but in Latin America, too, which is increasingly dependent on China. Che Guevara-inspired distrust and even hatred for the U.S. makes China an alternative for many leaders south of Mexico.
Arguably, there is one group that can turn this around. It’s the American consumer.
Over the last year, companies like ChinaNever.com have tried to be the domestic version of Amazon.com. An Okahumpka businessman named Don Buckner, who created a utility equipment company called Vac-Tron Equipment and later sold it to Iowabased Vermeer Company, is raising funds to build an even bigger, user-friendly version of a sort of “locals only” business-to-business and business-to-consumer online retail platform. Mark Cuban is into this with We Cultivate. Where this goes, nobody knows. Today, big retail platforms and new entrepreneurs are creating a direct American-consumer-to-China-manufacturer model. You don’t know it because Amazon and others don’t tell you where their products are made. Neither does the guy selling you running shoes on YouTube.
Senators like Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., want Americans to know where their products are made because they know more than half of consumers say they would buy American made if they had the option and if it was convenient. Even more say they want to buy products made by manufacturers who source responsibly.
The big e-commerce platforms don’t like labels. They’ll push back. More goods will come from China. A trillion-dollar trade deficit is a year away, max.
The China shift in America started around 1998. Back then, China was making Happy Meal toys and mixing cement in flip-flops. Today, they’re making TikTok and Goldwind wind turbines.
In 1998, China was granted temporary Most Favored Nation (MFN) status, which meant goods from China could be sold here nearly tariff-free.
In 2000, President Bill Clinton gave China permanent MFN status, which meant Arkansas retail giant Walmart could then sell a bazillion $20 patio furniture pieces made in China for $3.
And in 2001, China joined the World Trade Organization. American corporations have been focused on China ever since. Some moved offshore. Millions of jobs were lost. Our consumption was, and is, an Asian jobs program.
Now big brands don’t want to be in China only to make things cheaper, and at scale. Goldman wants to sell them stocks. Hollywood wants China to be the first to see its movies.
The U.S. is almost becoming an afterthought.
How does this change? Washington is too slow, despite bipartisan angst against China.
Pop-culture influencers in Hollywood are too dependent on China to ever turn Americans off to it. You can’t count on them to save the Uyghurs, or Taiwan one day. Big corporations are too hooked.
Only the American consumer can turn this around.