Asia under Trump: How the US is losing the region to China

CNN)In just one year, US President Donald Trump has changed the way Asia looks at the United States.

The cornerstones of American power in Asia, Japan, Australia and South Korea, all lost a little faith in their longtime close ally and protector in 2017, according to Gallup polling.
No military assets have been withdrawn, no embassies closed, but the lack of interest expressed by a US administration focused on "America First" has deeply shaken its status in the region.

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https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/27/asia/asia-trump-us-china-intl/index.html

Hard to blame them. Now Trump is starting a trade war as well.

Top Cat said:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/27/asia/asia-trump-us-china-intl/index.html

Hard to blame them. Now Trump is starting a trade war as well.

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While Donald struggles to see one move ahead, the Chinese see twelve moves ahead. For example, their One Belt One Road initiative intends to turn much of the world's biggest continent into an economic powerhouse, with China squarely at the center.

just be confident that Trump's base aka ~21 million Americans (of about 330 million Americans) believe that Trump is the answer for America's ills

So, basically <1 out of 11 Americans support Trump

LOL ...................... we are soooooooooooooooooooooo ****ed ..................

US President Donald Trump (L) and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

President Donald Trump said his visit to Japan, the first stop of his five-nation tour of Asia, and his friendship with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe "yielded many benefits," but there is at least one memorable moment he missed out on.

Trump was invited to play a round of golf Sunday with Abe and world no.4 golfer Hideki Matsuyama at the Kasumigaseki Country Club, the course that will host the golfing events during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and that, until recently, prohibited women from playing on Sundays.

https://sports.yahoo.com/trump-completely-missed-abe-stumbling-091124215.html

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But Trump is doing a good job when it comes to containing North Korea, which is clearly at the top of his agenda. Japan is especially appreciative of what the Trump administration is doing, when North Korean missiles fly over the country on a regular basis. The Trump administration is also changing four decades of America’s soft approach to China, which now is essentially characterized as an adversary. President Trump is clearly intend to challenge Beijing’s outrageous expansionism in the South China Sea and Beijing is treading carefully to avoid provoking Trump.

Phys251 said:

While Donald struggles to see one move ahead, the Chinese see twelve moves ahead. For example, their One Belt One Road initiative intends to turn much of the world's biggest continent into an economic powerhouse, with China squarely at the center.

Click to expand...

Another large concern is China & Russia moving to become the world's reserve currency:

Business Insider: Russia and China are talking about linking currencies to end the US dollar's dominance

I don't even want to think of the ramifications, politically, functionally, and economically, if the USD is removed from being the world's reserve currency. We will be economically neutered, at the whims of Chinese-Russian control of currency rates that will certainly not be in our best interests.

As long as Trump continues to withdraw & remove us from the leadership position we paid so dearly to attain during the war (WWII), and that which enjoyed through the years after until now, China & Russia will continue to fill the void with their leadership, economic and otherwise.

The world is what it is today due to our leadership, not due to some random evolution. And if we're not careful, we're going to let it go spinning away!

Chomsky said:

Another large concern is China & Russia moving to become the world's reserve currency:

Business Insider: Russia and China are talking about linking currencies to end the US dollar's dominance

I don't even want to think of the ramifications, politically, functionally, and economically, if the USD is removed from being the world's reserve currency. We will be economically neutered, at the whims of Chinese-Russian control of currency rates that will certainly not be in our best interests.

As long as Trump continues to withdraw & remove us from the leadership position we paid so dearly to attain during the war (WWII), and that which enjoyed through the years after until now, China & Russia will continue to fill the void with their leadership, economic and otherwise.

The world is what it is today due to our leadership, not due to some random evolution. And if we're not careful, we're going to let it go spinning away!

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Yup. It's all fun and games to talk about pulling back from the top of the world stage, but if we don't do it VERY carefully, the average American is liable to get hosed. And Donald is anything but careful. :doh

China's rise is inevitable, it seems.

ThirdTerm said:

But Trump is doing a good job when it comes to containing North Korea, which is clearly at the top of his agenda. Japan is especially appreciative of what the Trump administration is doing, when North Korean missiles fly over the country on a regular basis. The Trump administration is also changing four decades of America’s soft approach to China, which now is essentially characterized as an adversary. President Trump is clearly intend to challenge Beijing’s outrageous expansionism in the South China Sea and Beijing is treading carefully to avoid provoking Trump.

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So I have to ask where, when and how??? North Korea isn't being contained, China could easily bring NK to it's knees and Trump has asked for that help... don't see that happening. I just see Trump acting like a middle school snot nosed brat with ignorant childish insults.

Trump made fiery speeches about China ripping us off during the campaign, oh he was gonna be soooooo tough on them, believe you me.... however he praised their ripping us off, refuses to address the currency issue, and I don't see him drawing any line anywhere when it comes to the South Seas and our allies...

You must be using those famous Trump alternate facts... eace

As I posted in another thread on this very topic, the notion that President Trump is losing Asia is absurd. First the US never had Asia. You had the periphery of Asia - the Philippines, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. You tried and failed to get Vietnam and the broader Indochina region. Secondly the US Grand Area Strategy (c.1940) began to crumble in 1949 when the PRC displaced the Kuomingtang-dominated Republic of China on the Asian mainland. Truman, not Trump lost Asia to America.

Britain lost the Indian Sub-continent first to nationalism, which then strayed to Soviet influence and finally partially to religious extremism (both Islamist and Himdu). Russian Asia was lost in the early 1920's to both British and American influence.

The US is effectively bankrupt and as all empires eventually do, it is set to collapse under the huge cost of maintaining empire. However before that collapse occurs there will likely be a domestic shift from Republic to Junta or totalitarianism and it is in that very possible transition that President Trump may cost America dearly. President Trump has surrounded himself with military leaders and corporatist captains of finance which have profoundly anti-democratic leanings and has normalised such authoritarianism. His authoritarian impulses and willingness to embrace the methods of dictators both past and present may lead to a rapidly increasing authoritarian state in the USA. Conversely, attempts to dislodge him may lead to an equally authoritarian state being imposed from another direction.

America is in danger of losing America, Asia was lost seventy years ago.

Cheers?
Evilroddy.

I think our best chance at countering a potential Chinese hegemony in Asia was the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which built a strong structure of mutual trade and benefits around the Pacific Rim and expressly excluded China. Bringing Asian labor and intellectual property standards up to American levels (or reasonable approximations thereof) would be a boon for the future of the American economy, which is knowledge work, and locking these Asian partner nations into a deal with us would be very useful for building a regional alliance network. We would have strengthened our position vis a vis the South China Sea dispute, could have leveraged China on the North Korea front far more effectively, and could possibly choose to expand TPP to the Indian subcontinent if we so chose. I also think we should have gotten in on One Belt One Road and the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank when we had the chance, under Obama, as any American influence on Chinese-dominated institutions could only make our position stronger and show our willingness to work in the international system. I see China as becoming the strong regional power in Asia in the coming decade(s), but we can significantly influence how that goes down if we make the right choices. So far under Trump I think we have disengaged, which is precisely the wrong choice.