In a bold speech last week at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, President Donald Trump made waves by giving a speech in which he pledged to put “America first.” And, by the time he had left, we had seen the first fruits of that attitude.
According to Bloomberg, the Trump administration won several major concessions from China, including major protections for intellectual property.
On Friday, a top official in China’s Communist Party said that American companies would no longer be forced to turn over intellectual property secrets in order to enter the Chinese market, a major stumbling block in the relationship between China and the United States.
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In August, according to Reuters, Trump signed an executive order to set up an inquiry into China’s intellectual property practices, which some estimate could amount to theft of up to $600 billion. At the time, the president called it “a very big move.”
Surprisingly, even The New York Times agreed with him.
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In a piece published the day after Trump’s order, titled “China’s Intellectual Property Theft Must Stop,” The Times wrote that “(f)or too long, the United States has treated China as a developing nation to be coaxed and lectured, while tolerating its bad behavior as merely growing pains.
“There has been an expectation that as China’s economy matures, it will of its own accord adopt international standards in commerce, including protection for intellectual property. There has also been a tendency to excuse mercantilist behavior, including industrial espionage, as a passing phase, and to justify inaction as necessary to secure Chinese cooperation on other, supposedly more important, issues.”
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“For decades, successive American administrations have concluded that some level of exposure to China’s depredations against our intellectual property is simply the cost of doing business with the world’s now second-largest economy,” they added. “This is not acceptable.”
That wasn’t the only thing that the Trump administration managed to get out of the trip. His first visit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in China yielded $253 billion in tentative business agreements.
Then, after Trump had departed, Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao announced the end to limits on foreign ownership of banks and other financial institutions in China — another much-sought after prize.
On Friday, Trump gave a speech in Vietnam which laid down the gauntlet on trade.
“From this day forward, we will compete on a fair and equal basis. We are not going to let the United States be taken advantage of anymore,” Trump said.
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“I am always going to put America first, the same way that I expect all of you in this room to put your countries first.”
If this Asia trip is any indication, it certainly seems to be working out.
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