Choose Heads or Tails:
- You choose heads. President Trump, according to an article by Alan Rapperport of the New York Times, has welcomed Chinese investment in the United States, with several asterisks. He states that as long as workers of Chinese firms employed in the US are American workers, he’s all for it — Mr. Trump has a quite warm relationship with China’s President Xi. Taking a more liberal and expansive view then the members of his fellow party, Mr. Trump has encouraged foreign investments to come to the US and do business; his approval of the Nippon Steel company investing in US steel is the epitome. A huge welcome sign, albeit with the fine print listed underneath, sounds appealing to me. As a violin player, all my accessories, instrument case, rosin, and shoulder rest come from China. If the price goes down because the Chinese rosin or instrument accessories companies can assemble in the US rather than having to ship the items through freight or flight, then I’m two thumbs up. The price of rosin is $8. Part of the fee is from the shipping fee; part for costs; and part for profit. While politics will interject itself on price, as a consumer who felt the reel from averse economic policies, I would not mind, although with security assurances, a Chinese company opening a base in the US and producing over here. I commend Alan Rappeport for highlighting President Trump’s willingness for foreign investment.
- You choose tails. All that I said above was true: a welcome sign with an asterisk and a measured approach to foreign investment. As a journalist, even though sometimes it might feel hard to separate, I must also discuss the opposite side. The prospects for any warm relationships between the US and China seem to have hit cement. Memorandums have been in place preventing US from investing in China due to concerns, as Alan Rapperport puts it, “of funding state-sponsored genocide, military aggression, surveillance state apparatus and other malign activities.” The prospect, if any left at all, given China’s growing decrease in US investment, of further investment just gets exacerbated. Additionally, the trading abilities of China with the US further got eschewed; the US and its allies believe that China is using loopholes for chip and chip-making technology. I’m not talking about politics. But I, having no economics degree nor certification, only care about the price at the checkout of Music & Arts. Mr. Trump’s ultimate goals at protecting national security — for example, he recently expanded CFIUS, Committee of Foreign Investment in the United States, jurisdiction to review “greenfield investments,” investments used by companies to forgo national security concerns due to acquisition desires — are honorable. I die-hard support them, but I just cannot find how this is making violin prices go down.
“We’re going to have a good relationship with China, but they won’t be able to take advantage of us,” Mr. Trump said at the Oval Office on Wednesday.
