Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ERWC
Period 4
In time of difficulties, we must not lose sight in our achievements. This is the
quote that the fallen Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party Mao Zedong said in
regards to his failing attempts to accelerate Chinas socio economic prowess to match
that of the United States. In the failings of the 1950s, Maos Red China faced bitter
indigenous people by the Western World. Fast forward sixty years to the twenty first
century and now there is a China, whose red might is creeping closer to US borders,
specifically: Mexico. Mexico and China have often seen each other has economic
competitors that beg for appeasement of investment by Western Europe and the United
States, but as Nationalism begins to rise in the Capitalist World, these two human-
capital empires are beginning to work together to earn their place on the world stage.
In 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was passed by the
Clinton Administration under the pretext of more jobs, and there indeed were more,
sadly those manufacturing jobs in Americas heartland were not the more that the
President had referred to. States like Indiana, Ohio and Michigan where Americas
factories turned out more cars than the rest of the world combined, and where slogans
such as we can do it ruled the floors. When NAFTA passed and corporations no longer
had to pay import taxes, they turned their production facilities over to Mexico as quickly
as possible. This was in large part due to the lesser wages that corporations would have
to pay their workers, as the average American worker demanded over 62% higher
wages for the same work that a Mexican worker could do. With that amount of money
being saved, Americans quickly found themselves unemployed, and the heartland
became a graveyard.
This anti-Mexican and anti-NAFTA fury that grips the average American who was
affected has never been seen more clearly and couldnt be ignored more than in
November 2016 when the American people through the Electoral College elected
Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States. Trump from the start of his
campaign has pledged to kill NAFTA and now that he has the means behind his mouth,
the Mexican Government is bracing for the worst. Rather than trying to rely solely on the
hope that NAFTA wont die, Mexico is looking across the Pacific to work with China, the
arch-rival of the US in terms of economics. Both Mexico and China have enormous
reserves of human labor that are low-skilled and will work for lower wages than an
American would ever work for. Rather than using their labor rivalry as a means to harm
one another, China and Mexico are going to try to entice the corporations to entirely
remove the United States from the table and allow their investments to eventually
Ever since China has emerged as a world power with its Socialist-Capitalist
hybrid of economics, it has expanded its influence across the world, and especially
south of the United States. By offering countries such as Mexico and Chile cheap
products in exchange for partnership with them, China has in effect created its own
unofficial NAFTA to combat the United States. This affects the United States
economically by ending the monopoly of trade between Central/South America and the
US which reduces the profit that the US Government makes. On the flip side, the
corporations (based in the US) are soaring in profits and are furthering in distancing
themselves from the US. This wouldnt necessarily be a problem if the US labor force
could compete with the Sino-Mexican pact, but the reduction in wages and reduction in
the quality of life simply is not an option for most Americans. The result is that China
and Mexico are braced to handle Trumps supposed purge of NAFTA and trade in favor
of Protectionism.
But is there a way for the US to come out on top? The short answer is no. The
reason is partly economic and partly philosophical, as Adam Smith, an early economic
thinker, noted: You cant be good at making everything, so you cant expect your
country to be the same. What he meant in these contexts are that no matter how good
a country such as the United States or China is, there is simply no possibility for one
country to make all products in demand at sufficient volume and quality within its own
borders. Furthermore, without the need for products from foreign shores, there is no
would virtually end foreign relations and progression of societies due to the absence of
competition.
and Mexico will survive and the US will suffer further hardship. Looking from the
perspective that one body needs to be better than the other for economical purposes is
irrational. No matter what results from trade or foreign relations, economics dictates that
there are no winners or losers, only compromises. The solution is for the US to stop
trying to prevent the inevitable and resort to competing with this change rather than
resorting to isolationism.
Works Cited:
Bernal, Rafael. The Hill. News Communications Inc. 13, December, 2016.
http://thehill.com/latino/310250-mexico-seeks-closer-engagement-with-china
Schmitz, Rob. Kim, Lucian. Kahn, Carrie. All Things Considered. National Public Radio.
anticipate-changed-u-s-relations-under-trump