The China Backlash Will Change Globalization in the 21st Century
The world will have no choice but to punish China where it lives, in the global marketplace.
Every day of the pandemic we hear about new lawsuits against China’s handling of the coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China. The “Wuhan virus” always sounded like a more intuitive name for it than Covid-19 ever did.
While Beijing is bracing for repercussions following the coronavirus, it is determined to maintain China’s integral role in the global economy. That tension will force China to innovate more and play political meddling games less. Its political meddling in other countries such as Australia is really shameful and disrupting its already weak and warping global reputation.
But China isn’t the China Community Party (CCP). A people is not responsible for the dictatorship driven and misguided authoritarianism of its leaders. China’s two-faced propaganda and bullying ways aren’t just the problem, its negligence in Wuhan and slow action caused already over 200,000 thousand deaths and (10 to 20) trillion dollars in global damages amid economic declines and massive unemployment. The backlash against China will be very real and significant.
Supply Chains and Manufacturing Will Leave China
Supply chains will shift out of China. Major companies will leave. Realignment of global value chains will speed up post-crisis, and this will push China to leverage its advanced infrastructure, industrial capabilities and a more scientifically based approach (rather than political) to emerge stronger.
China doesn’t just need to reinvent its human rights reputation and credibility as a good citizen of the world, it needs to grow morally through economic punishments from other countries. The CCP regime too will have its day of reckoning.
The global health crisis has killed tens of thousands of people, battered economies and put a severe dent in Beijing’s relations with other countries.
It’s been a blur of missteps from the CCP on how to deal with a pandemic, how to warp global bodies like the WHO and how to not accept blame with humility. It’s been embarrassing to watch, and while the world suffers social distancing predominantly caused by China, China’s economic recovery is already underway. While some wonder if its unfair to scapegoat China, what about the humiliation of the world?
It’s been embarrassing to watch, while the world suffers social distancing predominantly caused by China, China’s economic recovery is already underway.
Consensus is growing in Beijing that the coronavirus pandemic is set to make the world more hostile towards China. Each week we have witnessed lawsuits from U.S. states, Germany, Australia or someplace else. Think about how China is indeed liable.
That backlash is real because as important as China is to the global economy and as important its consumers are to the balance of things, as China has growth, so too has its reputation for being a global delinquent increased.
From the stock market to cybersecurity threats, to the technology vendor, trust in China and its businesses is at an all-time low. It’s worth mentioning that China’s tactics also make it a global bully that most smaller countries are too fearful to openly oppose or even criticize.
The pandemic and China’s selfish lack of data transparency may be the straw that broke the camel’s back. China likely warrants and deserves in full the potentially unprecedented external adversity and challenges it will face in the coming months and years, because a pandemic is a serious matter, whether of zoological origin or manufactured in a lab.
Biological warfare, like cyber terrorism, propaganda and infiltration are not fair tactics in the 21st century. Years of rampant corporate espionage and corporate cloning is not a legitimate claim to a rise to power economically or at the board room of the global marketplace.
China Could Become the “Empire”
China can’t be allowed to cheat, bully and become a fascist technological state it’s on the dangerous road to becoming. It would disrupt humanity’s progress too much.
The global health crisis, which has killed more than 200,000 people and infected more than 3 million worldwide may have even been part of China’s nefarious plan to increase its dominance and influence. But even the best of plans can backfire.
At the Last Futurist, we believe the backlash to China’s handling of the pandemic is serious enough to aggravate China into becoming a dark state. China could become the next Nazi Germany. Leaders of nations will file lawsuits against the Chinese government and introduce legislation to let their citizens sue the Chinese Communist Party in their highest courts. China will react badly to this.
The world will have no choice but to punish China where it lives, in the global marketplace. An acceleration of a global value chain realignment in the early 2020s is already occurring, and no amount of brute-force tactics by the CCP and its minions will allow it to come out unscathed.
The backlash could hit China’s job market in the short term and marginalize the country’s long-term role in the global economy — though we are talking about the most powerful economical and technological force of the 21st century.
China and the CCP will use this to super-charge its own version of nationalism and exaggerated group-think. After all, this was likely part of the plan. While Beijing is politically and ideologically at odds with Western liberal democracies, it is determined to stay embedded within the global market. China can use the cold tech war and global backlash of the pandemic to its own advantage to mobilize its state machinery and ideological frameworks.
It will continue to wage a technological and economic war for global domination. It will continue infiltrating India, South America, Africa and parts of Europe. China’s greed is only surpassed by its lust for power and influence in an increasingly globalized world. What will that mean for the world and the global economy in the decades to come?
Even shunned, China will continue to grow its arsenal, until global geopolitical tensions mount to a boiling point. This is what empires do, they topple the current world order and rule. China will rule, but every early indicator shows it will not be a benevolent dictator.
The world is already fearful of such a world. While China’s seeks an unfettered influence, it’s positioned itself to be the enemy of the free world. That too will have a price for humanity as a whole.
The geopolitical risk that China presents is the epicenter of the most important moments in the 21st century, of which the Wuhan virus is just the first chapter. The cold tech war between China and the United states has begun, and few things in the world can prevent it.
Nay, it is inevitable. The U.S. military and Silicon Valley have a very slim window in which to maintain dominance. In 2020, that window is closing fast.
The Wuhan virus shows China’s lack of leadership ability on the global stage. Whether China can maintain its position in the global economy or ends up isolated after the pandemic is brought under control will be one of the most important questions post-crisis.
China’s isolation and wrath over the ‘mistreatment’ of the backlash will also shape its national psyche, further manipulated by the CCP, to perhaps nefarious ends. In the psycho-dynamics of nations, it’s a real trigger.
In a world of digital transformation, AI, the Cloud, there is no real retreat from globalization. Not all the protectionism in the world, nor firewalls can separate us truly. Covid-19 has taught us that. However the pandemic has also taught the world that China cannot be trusted.
Globalization Reformulated
This lingering pandemic has exposed weak links in the old globalization model and subsequently China and other countries must rethink and readjust the global industrial layout. While Vietnam and Taiwan might prosper from this, after Hong Kong, who’s to say China won’t continue their expansion globally? Why not swallow Hong Kong, Taiwan, and maybe even North Korea, Singapore and weak neighbors like Vietnam?
China brings an old kind of nationalism back where the global economy feels more like digital warfare. While AI brings incredible convenience to consumers, it also brings new rivalries. There’s something oddly sinister about Alibaba becoming a Prince of PPE.
The new normal after the pandemic is one where we know China caused the coronavirus to spread, but cannot openly admit it. It’s politically incorrect to acknowledge that some people (in their negligence) caused such untold economic suffering on billions of other humans.
It’s politically incorrect to acknowledge that some people (in their negligence) caused such untold economic suffering on billions of other humans.
The Wuhan virus is the pivotal event of 2020. 2020 may mark the beginning in a chain of reactions that will lead China into becoming a threat to the rest of the world.
China believes it can threaten other nation states without repercussions. Its global diplomacy is remarkably unsophisticated. However it is the world’s biggest manufacturer and the world’s largest consumer market and its technological prowess has yet even to hit its zenith.
If China is already a gangster on the world stage, just think about what it will become. That Chinese President Xi Jinping was the cause of one of the worst global economic recession of the century will be one for the history books.
In a world where China remains a market that can’t be neglected, what form would a backlash take that’s likely to stick? What zealous following could such a backlash incite in its brainwashed citizens to become the next super-power of a more ruthless sort? China’s will-to-power to influence the world by fair means or foul is a pretty ominous sign for the geopolitical dangers of the 21st century for all of us.
In the bedroom of the world, there’s a monster in the closet and it has Covid-19 breath. China as supreme ruler of the Asian bloc of the world will hold absolute power sometime in the 21st century.
China’s significantly larger market size means it can return stronger, while other countries suffer more in the economic recovery effort due to the pandemic. The deepest economic contraction in nearly a century might actually be good for China’s geopolitical and technological positioning of increased global influence towards domination.