A new COLD WAR?

US vs China trade war

Buth Khuptanon

Over the past years, the relationship between China and the US has not been the best, but recently it only seems to have gotten worse. As two countries with the largest economies in the world (wisevoter, 2023), it is expected that both would view each other as a threat and be wary of the other’s fastgrowing economic and military power However, tension has recently escalated to the point where it is starting to affect millions of lives… and it all started in the summer of 2019.

The relationship between China and the US is similar to that of water and oil since it seems unlikely that both would find any peaceful ground between each other, which can be seen from a trade dispute in 2019. Tensions over the past few years have accumulated together to the point where President Trump, the US President at the time, could not take it anymore and imposed an additional 10% tariff on $300 billion of Chinese goods, following the staggering 25% tariff on $200 billion of Chinese goods he imposed a week before that If you expected that China would sit still after that, you are wrong, for they quickly responded by imposing a whopping 25% tariff on $60 billion worth of US goods (Feldman & Richter, 2019) Fights, through politics and propaganda, broke out after that, as both races were to be the ones who conquered the world’s economy. However, who do you think was affected most by this incident? Yes, it is the Chinese and American citizens

As many know, the US has one of the largest automobile industries in the world and is home to many well-known automobile companies like Tesla, Ford and Jeep. Due to the trade tensions, China has increased its tariff on imported USmade automobiles from 15% to 40% -which is a significant amount of increase- and resulted in demand for US-made automobiles dropping drastically in China because of the huge gap in its price when compared to automobiles made locally Even a well-recognised brand like Tesla couldn’t escape the effect of it and had to absorb some of the difference in order to control the price level (Reiff, 2020). Now, a question is raised: what would happen to the workers in these firms if the firms had less profit? A report at the time suggests that because of the trade war between the two nations, 245,000 workers were fired from their jobs (Reuters , 2021),undoubtedly affecting the standard of living and poverty rate inside the US. A similar trend can be seen in the Chinese economy The data at the time estimated that 2.5% of the Chinese population, who were most affected by the trade tension, experienced a 2.52% decrease in their per capita income and a 1.62% decrease in manufacturing employment In other words, there is a decrease in living standards and an increase in the poverty rate, similar to that of the US (Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, 2021).

Although both may not want to admit it, both economies are indeed linked to each other - if one prospers, the other is likely to be doing well; if one collapses, the other is likely to face hardship. Therefore, it would be difficult to see how the political tension would do any good other than harm each other’s economies and cause their people to face hardship

Bibliography

Largest economies in the world 2023 (2023) Wisevoter. Available at: https://wisevoter.com/countryrankings/largest-economies-in-the-world/ (Accessed: 08 June 2023).

Feldman, S. and Richter, F. (2019) Infographic: The u.s.-china trade war: A brief recap, Statista Infographics Available at: https://www statista com/chart/16280/china-us-trade/?gclid=CjwKCAjwIWkBhBTEiwA2exyO2UgQWN2-dguYcQCATtU0b1pjvymJV2st62Cztu5Cmc9xrm1Xk3shoCoKUQAvD BwE (Accessed: 08 June 2023)

Reiff, N. (2020) What industries are most affected by the trade war with China?, Investopedia. Available at: https://www investopedia com/industries-most-likely-to-be-impacted-by-tradedisputes-with-china-in-2019-

4580508#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20biggest%20areas,U S %20automakers%2C%20like%20Tesla %20Inc. (Accessed: 08 June 2023).

Reuters (2021) U.S.-China trade war has cost up to 245,000 U.S. Jobs: Business Group Study, Reuters. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-china-jobs-idUSKBN29J2O9 (Accessed: 08 June 2023)

Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth (2021) Has the u s -china trade war hurt the Chinese economy?, Tuck School of Business. Available at: https://www tuck dartmouth edu/news/articles/has-the-u s-china-trade-war-hurt-the-chineseeconomy#:~:text=They%20estimate%20that%20the%20tail,percent%20decrease%20in%20manufact uring%20employment. (Accessed: 09 June 2023).

Fine: 42.1 billion KRW

launch mobile game applications only on the Google Play platform (excluding the App Store of Apple) in exchange for providing featuring and supporting overseas expansion. Featuring is a no-cost advertising tactic, which exposes the app on the very first page of Google Play to the customers, so it was a shocking exchange as featuring is free. Google did not provide any support to game companies that did not make an exclusive release on Google Play even if the evaluation of the game was considered positive.

This egoistic behaviour of Google was successful as it accomplished launching Lineage II, Lineage MapleStory M and Mu Origin 2 only on Google. It began in June 2016 and continued for 1 year and 10 months until April 2018. Google’s share increased from around 80 - 85 percent of the market in 2016 to 90 - 95 percent of the market in 2018, while One Store’s share fell from 15 - 20 percent to 5 - 10 percent, which was a significant loss. Game is the category that contributes to over 90 percent of the profit for Google Play and One Store in Korea so Google Play abusing its authority in this way was critical damage to One Store

One Store is an electronic discharge (ESD is the release of static electricity when two objects come into contact. (Kirvan, 2023)) created by the three major telecommunication companies of Korea (SK, LG and KT) It was reported that the domestic firm (One Store) was struggling to secure launching an app and a regular firm organisation was impossible. What has also been discovered was the emails received between the employees of Google. “Power to manage partners” was found and on one of the workers’ notes, it was written that they should make One Store into a minor loser league, signifying that they wanted to eliminate the growth of a domestic firm There was also a document that tracked the situation of One Store along with whether their goal was being reached or not. (맹, 2023)

The amount of from this inciden (KRW) and after the Fair Trade C total fine of 42.1 Google. The Surveillance o Commission (유성 was the first prec exhibited characteristics market (김, 2023

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Bibliography

Pettinger, T. Monopoly https://www.econ says/markets/mo Kirvan, P (2023 electrostatic dis TechTarget https://www.tech ition/electrostatic https://n.news.na 001/0013872731?

April https://n.news.na 119/0002701548?