If Donald Trumps Learns From Deng Xiaoping, He’ll Be Great Indeed
The most dramatic US presidential election ever ended with Donald Trump’s unexpected victory after various astonishing plot twists. As Trump once called China “the single greatest currency manipulator that’s ever been on this planet,” future relations between China and the US have been of widespread concern.
Trump: China stole huge numbers of jobs from the US and I will take them back
Even from the standpoint of world history, the US has already embraced a strategic contraction, which is necessary to focus on tackling its own economic and social contradiction from interfering with global business. Trump’s emergence, to some extent, is an inevitable outcome of the country’s strategic transformation.
Looking at Trump without preconception, it could be seen that Trump’s ideas reflect a main theme, namely ‘doing America’s own things.’ Furthermore we could even find that Trump takes in many of Deng Xiaoping’s ideas. If Trump can master the essence of Deng’s theory, Trump’s presidency will open a new window for China-US dialogue and cooperation.
Trump’s words are similar to Deng Xiaoping’s theory both literally and essentially
It seems impossible that a US presidential candidate could have similar ideas with Deng Xiaoping, a Chinese leader from Sichuan, and become president. Let’s consider some comparisons of their words and theories.
Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again!” is like an American version of “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” During one speech Trump said, “I’ll give priority to the American people’s interests and security, which will be the basis for all my decisions.” Deng once said, “Go our own way and contribute to socialism with Chinese characteristics.” As it were, Deng’s words could be regarded as the original of Trump’s ‘doing America’s own things.’
As for economic growth, Trump advocated, “We must change our consideration on policies of trade, migrants and economies to make our economy strong again,” which is essentially similar with the basic national policy of “Centering on economic construction” proposed by Deng. As it were, Trump has taken in Deng’s guiding idea of regarding the priority of developing domestic economies as the policy core.
In international relationships, Trump stresses returning the US to “isolationism” from “intentional interference.” In his view “America should not always interfere with other countries, for it will eventually throw this country into a dilemma.” Deng once said, “Three sentences for international situations in summary. First, observe in calm. Second, stabilize ourselves. Third, never be the sharp end of the stick, which is an essential national policy.” This paragraph could be summarized as “hide one’s capacities and bide one’s time,” of which Trump has mastered both the literal meaning and the spirit.
What’s more, in diplomacy, Trump has always criticized America’s “hard-sell democracy.” In his mind, “America is weakening itself when attempting to restructure other countries, and its systems are not universally applicable to all.” That reflects the same spirit as Deng’s refrain that “There is no fixed development mode in the world, for each country is faced with different matters in modernization. The modernization of each country must be based on their local practice to choose a suitable modernization approach.”
Philosophically, Trump attaches more importance to practice. He said, “America needs someone with substantial stuff, while politicians only give malarkey on the New York Times.” During his speech in Gettysburg on Oct. 22, he said he would launch a 100-day action plan to make America great again on the very first day he took office. In a philosophical sense, Trump’s preaching is just consistent with the idea “practice is the only criteria for testing truth.”
Trump has also made no secret of his praise for China, such as, “You could never imagine Chinese’s ambition, for they regard themselves as invincible deep down.” “Our George Washington Bridge in New York is just nothing compared with China’s bridges.” “Chinese leaders are cleverer than American ones.” In his view, China is a strong competitor that deserves their respect.
The author once bought a popular book titled Quotations from Trump as a copycat of Quotations From Chairman Mao Zedong. Nevertheless, upon comparison, it could be seen Trump’s mentor is actually Deng Xiaoping. Trump’s victory reflects the choice of the American people and current status. It has turned definite that the US will shift its attention to its own development. On the other hand, the spirit in Deng’s theory like adhering to practice and innovation is just what America needs now.
China should be confident with adequate grounds
For a long time, there have been some people in western countries with American values acting as backseat drivers for other countries. Nevertheless, this election is significant enough to enable the world to review America’s values. China’s achievements in economics, social governance and diplomacy have been recognized by more and more countries, and more of them are drawing experience from China.
President Xi Jinping noted in a speech for the 95th anniversary since the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, “Our party shall be more confident in our orientation, theories, systems and cultures.” China is firmly grounded to demonstrate its confidence to the world.
Guided by Deng Xiaoping’s theory, since the reform and opening up, brilliant achievements are the basis for China’s confidence. This country has grown not only into the world’s second-largest economy, but also its largest trading nation and manufacturer. In particular, China’s average contribution rate to the world economy at around 30 percent has been far more than developed western countries. Along with the acceleration in China’s supply-side reform and also the advancement of the Made in China 2025 initiative, China is enjoying an accelerating economic transformation and upgrading with economic strength growing rapidly.
In contrast, after the financial crisis, policies in western countries relying on currency and financial stimulation not only were inadequate to resolve substantial problems in finance, but also spread the crisis to real economies and societies. Besides, the phenomenon such as negative interest rate has been diminishing the room for policy adjustment and it is necessary to find new theoretical guidance now. The ‘Trump Effect’ is an outcome of western people’s loss of faith in elites as well as their hesitation about worsening neo-liberal policies. Furthermore, the reflection of Deng Xiaoping’s theory in Trump’s ideas is also an awareness of the differential development trends of western countries and China. Hereto, we should be more confident about China’s theories.
With respect, strategic mutual trust between China and the US will be enhanced
During the eight-year presidency of Barack Obama, China-US relations have generally been kept stable, but deep-rooted mutual suspicion remain difficult to clear. The Asia-Pacific re-balance strategy proposed by Obama during his second term aims to boost US military force to announce the US’s absolute leadership in the region. The Obama administration also endeavored to drive the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement negotiations that excluded China as a member in an attempt to rebuild a free trade platform led by the US outside the World Trade Organization’s framework.
What the Obama administration did has weakened the foundation for mutual trust between China and the US, and also arouses the concern of American people that TPP will lead to the outflow of more jobs. Therefore, Obama’s Asia-Pacific policies have witnessed strong opposition from the people in America.
With different administrative ideas from Obama, Trump holds that the US should divert more attention to domestic problems and revitalize American manufacturing. It is a turnaround for China-US relations rather than a crisis, as each of the two countries is dedicated to its own construction and has guiding theories for easier mutual communication, and thus will enable dialogues in more fields and accordingly enhance the strategic mutual trust between the two countries on a new foundation.
After Trump won the presidency, his opinions in the election show that the US will divert its direction by shrinking its tough and expansionary foreign policy and giving more attention to improving domestic affairs, adjusting domestic structure and revitalizing the real economy. Such an adjustment will substantially influence America’s global position and signal a new stage of the global layout.
During Obama’s presidency, substantial reforms including medical reform have not been successful, and America fails to withdraw from the quagmire of wars, leaving more external challenges to the domestic. Problems in the economy, employment and even race discrimination have become worse, creating new pressure on social stability. Against the background of internal and external disorder, Hillary Clinton insisted on “interventionism” in elections to continue assertive diplomacy, while Trump proposed shrinking foreign policy and always give priority to American benefit. The latter coincides with the current demands of American national benefits, and is also an internal diversion of the US in its development route of “unified resistance to foreign countries” that has been kept for years.
China, by insisting on “hiding the light and making a difference” since its reform and opening-up, has been actively integrating into the world system, adhering to peaceful development and explored an economic and social development path with Chinese characteristics while not giving up its pursuit of an ideal society. In recent years, with powerful economic strength and stable social environment as support, China has achieved its peaceful transitioning from the internal to the external by actively participating in international affairs and becoming a backer of the new international order.
If Trump really learns from Deng Xiaoping, we can tell him that the historical opportunity for a higher level of China-US cooperation has come. His presidency is a chance to alleviate China-US strategic divergence, expand cooperation of the two countries at all levels based on the principle of “no conflict or confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation,” and control divergences with constructive methods. With a new starting point, China-US cooperation can exceed specific economic and diplomatic aspects and lift mutual references and cooperation along the development path and national strategic philosophy.
(Authors: Wang Wen, executive president of Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China; Jia Jinjing, director of the institute’s Research Department; and Bian Yongzu, a researcher at the institute.)
