The US Presidential election by November 2020 is slowly-slowly gaining momentum and Donald Trump and Joseph Biden are into a gruelling battle for the coveted rank. US all over has been hit by the anti-racism riots in the wake of US black citizen George Floyd killing on May 25, 2020 1 and internet is all too splashed with mobs in US running amok, burning public installations and throwing life out of gear, while ‘I can’t breathe’ , the last words of Goerge Floyd, have become the new political metaphor all across the world. The events of the whole of last seventy years, have proven more than right that US is a white-supremacist oligarchy which has unleashed only death-and-destruction abroad and it is only now when fire and smoke smoldering on its streets has been seen. Don’t forget the Los Angeles riots of 1992 2 which had taken place almost on a similar issue. Nothing has changed in the last 25 years in America.
No wonder, this racism being inside the bone-marrow of US ruling elite, as what it has done to its non-white Hispanics and native-Americans, has just added more to the ‘yellow-peril’ , a narrative Trump wants to perpetuate in wake of COVID-19 spread against China and Asian-Americans, and which obviously, will further lead to making American more worse-off, in the wake of ‘Trump racists policies against China’ as this is what Professor Ken Moak, who has taught economic theory, public policy and globalisation at university level for 33 years, has recently written 3. China is now to be the best election-issue for US to fight the elections, and therefore, both ‘Trump and Biden are trying to outdo each other on tough on China’ 4. In the same report, published in ClickonDetroit.Com it becomes clear that China has become the center-stage of American polity as with regards to ‘ Coronavirus spread throughout the US, a Pew Research Center poll in March 2020 found Americans with increasingly negative views of China, with 66% saying they had an unfavorable opinion. That was the most negative rating since the question was first asked in 2005. The same poll found 62% of Americans calling China’s power and influence a major threat to the U.S., compared with 48% two years ago’ . Trump is also accusing Biden son Hunter of business ties with China.
Election time is actually a Report-Card time, and it would be worthy to make a small recall as to how Trump has been able to make America Great Again (sic) as an article published in Forbes on July 19, 2020 suggests that US continues to retreat from global stage as China-Iran forges 25 year-deal 5, this deal which is initially declared as a 400 billion USD with Iran is obviously going to spell a downward trend for US particularly in the Middle-East as its immediate effect, this is perhaps the second biggest beating Trump has had since it bowed out of WHO on July 7, 2020, putting an end to its 72 years of old membership 6 , though Biden has said that US would stay in WHO if he wins and that the exit won’t take effect until July the next year. Trump in a televised address on April 14, 2020 had instructed to put an end to the 450$ million US aid per annum to World Health Organisation (WHO) and within a matter of a ten-days time, on April 23, China announced an additional funding to WHO by 30 million USD 7 . The two-giants are locked into practically everything since at least the beginning of 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out and has taken the world by its death toll.
In the last four years of Trump, US image as a global power has taken to the worst downfall, as US acronym as a world-sole-super-power just does not tend to hold-sway any more in the world politics. It remained locked in a twenty-year war with a rag-tag army of Afghan Taliban along with 40 of its allies and in the end had to sit across with the same people against whom the war was raged, and in its wake US and allies lost around 3000 of their soldiers, wounded more than 20,660 8 and lost USD 975 billion 9 for no purpose. As strong parallel comes recalling as it was the Deccan expedition of Aurengzeb Alamgir for 17 years, which ultimately led to the downfall of the Mughal empire and today US too perhaps stands on the same juncture. One study, however, which has almost got missed from the pubic gaze is that around 5,00,000 US military men who have at sometime served in Iraq or Afghanistan have been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder! 10 An entire generation in US has been ruined by such a fruitless war and the US public wants an answer to it.
As a natural consequence US under Trump had to start to vacate and it accordingly started to wane from global platforms as Trump, much to his election promise, firstly withdrew from Trans-Pacific-Partnership on Jan 24, 2017 11 something which was a brainchild of Obama who had stitched together a trade-agreement with Japan, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Mexico, in order to box China, covering around 40% of the world economy but Trump finished it with a stroke of his pen. Then, Trump went ahead to kill the Obama formulised Nuclear-Deal with Iran on May 9, 2018 12 which has started an untamed race to nuclear-power in the whole of Middle East. Thereafter, came his threat to withdraw from North American Free Trade Agreement on December 2, 2018. 13 What followed next was November 5, 2019, when Trump withdrew from the Paris Climate Accord 14 and also in its wake ceded to China to lead, as all the signatories of the accord condemned the reckless failure of US leadership, particularly as climate is the most significant crisis facing the humanity today. The year 2019 drew for a close when Trump announced his withdrawal from NATO on December 4, 2019 15 , a move considered nightmarish for its most pivotal ally Israel. 16 US therefore is forced to acknowledge its diminishing clout in the world with the advent of the rise of China as ‘China has replaced US as locomotive of global economy’ is what is the headline of an article by John Kemp, which is quite very self explanatory, published in reuters. 17
The last four years of Trump are a stark example as to how US has abandoned its trade-deals but India however, is sticking to its policies towards US, as on July 22, 2020, commerce minister Piyish Goyal has informed that US and India are close to inking a ‘quick’ trade deal on preferential trade 18 on 50 to 100 goods and services , whereas, there have already been reports that Trump had been engaged in a ‘ mini trade-war with India’ 19 and India too had announced retaliatory tariffs against the US. 20 Finally, India which is facing one of the worst economic crisis, in the wake of COVID-19 spread , along with belligerent China staking claims inside India’s territory, how would it like to achieve the penultimate goal of becoming a 5 trillion economy? Or it is just another Jumla?
The writer is former UP State Information Commissioner. He is also a lawyer based in Lucknow.
References:
1-(https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-floyd-investigation.html)
5- forbes.com/sites/suzytaherian/2020/07/19/us-continues-retreat-from-global-stage-as-china-iran-forge-25-year-deal/#54cdf3d55a4a
8- https://www.bbc.com/news/world-47391821
11 bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38721056
12- https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44045957
13- https://time.com/5468902/president-trump-nafta-deal/
15- https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/trump-leaves-nato-summit-after-drama-filled-visit
19-https://www.piie.com/blogs/trade-and-investment-policy-watch/trumps-mini-trade-war-india
20-India announces retaliatory US tariffs
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