Thread: China warns Trump: Good luck bringing jobs back to U.S.

China warns Trump: Good luck bringing jobs back to U.S.

by Heather Long November 30, 2016: 2:11 PM ET

Carrier reaches deal with Trump to save jobs

China appears to be sending a message to President-elect Donald Trump: Good luck competing against us on manufacturing.

Mere hours after Trump, Vice President-elect Mike Pence and Carrier announced a deal to keep nearly 1,000 factory jobs in the U.S., a top Chinese newspaper published an analysis piece with the headline: "China would benefit from Trump's effort to bring manufacturing jobs back to U.S."

The commentary ran in the "business opinion" section of the Global Times, a newspaper backed by the Communist Party.

"It will be almost impossible for the [U.S.] to restore its glory as a major manufacturing powerhouse under his presidency," the piece says. The author is a reporter for the Global Times.

If companies like Apple (AAPL, Tech30) move factory jobs back to the U.S. in a "show of patriotism," it will raise costs dramatically, the reporter argues. That opens the door for Chinese companies like smartphone makers Huawei and Xiaomi to undercut Apple on the world market.

The article may be a PR stunt

Carrier is not mentioned in the piece, but the theme that China can make just about anything cheaper than America is meant to apply to many industries. Carrier is best known for assembling air conditioners.

Experts who have followed U.S.-China relations for years call this mostly a PR stunt. Media in China is heavily controlled and influenced by the government.

"They wouldn't have written the article unless they were concerned" about Trump, says lawyer Gordon Chang, who is the author of "The Coming Collapse of China." "This is article trying to say things are going to be OK" for Chinese workers.

Trump repeatedly promised to bring jobs back to the U.S. from China and Mexico during his campaign. His plan for his first 100 days in office calls for labeling China a "currency manipulator."

China is likely nervous about how far Trump will go. Trump's presidency comes at a tough time for China. The country is undergoing a massive shift of its own from manufacturing to a more service and high-tech jobs. China's government continues to report 6.7% growth, but that is slower than in recent years and there are questions about how reliable that data is.

What can Trump and China really do?

Still, it's unclear how much Trump or Chinese leaders can do to change the larger dynamics at play on manufacturing. Many jobs are being lost to robots and automation, and some Chinese companies are starting to open factories in the U.S.

If China really wanted to undercut Apple or any other U.S. business, it would have tried already, argues Derek Scissors, a China expert at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute.

But Scissors thinks the Global Times article has a point: It will be difficult for Trump to turn back the clock to the glory days of U.S. manufacturing.

"If [Trump's] goal is to bring back manufacturing jobs, he can. But they won't be the same jobs we lost," Scissors says. It would also have "painful side effects" like higher prices for American consumers.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/30/news...ump/index.html

I think Trump has stirred it up good! He's got the "fiscal conservatives" worried about "tax incentives" to keep and grow our manufacturing base. He's got China worried that they might have to learn how to build their economy producing for their own 1 billion plus citizens. The Democrats are peeing in their pants willing to rail against American Jobs to put down Trump. The Unions aligned with the Democrats just don't know what to say so are saying nothing. The White House is comparing the jobs created by the weakest economic recovery in the history of our country to Trump's 1 industry success claiming he'll have to do it 804 more times to equal the manufacturing jobs Obama created which are net creations, we still lost manufacturing jobs overall as 1600 more companies have already filed plant closure notices with the Obama Department of Labor.

Meanwhile Trump, his new Cabinet, Trump Supporters and American Workers are happy!! Oh yes, we are happy. We want to save the other 400 jobs that might be lost at this Carrier plant. There were 1400 to be saved, they're saying they have a commitment to save about 1,000 so we want to try to save the other 400 as well. Maybe those are the ones down the road depending on getting the new tax plan passed and some unnecessary regulations removed. We also want Rexnord saved and the food service company and all the other 1600 companies who have filed to close their plants and relocate to another country to cancel their plans and stay with US and continue to hire American Workers!!

As to the glory days of US manufacturing being over, they aren't over, they just left and went to another country. We want them back so our glory stays in our country.

We'll need to dismantle NAFTA and CAFTA and re-implement tariffs, get the tax plan through fast and work as expeditiously as possible on excess unneeded regulations and repealing/replacing Obamacare. And of course pass the FairTax in 2017 so it can implement in 2019 by statute.

Lots to do!

This is one of the areas we, the American people, can help. To the best of your ability, put your money where your heart is.

Granted, we simply must by imported goods much of the time, but put a little effort into finding it made in the US, if possible.

We could also urge retailers to find and stock those goods for us.

There are lots of ups sides to this, one might be we would be getting better quality. Perhaps goods that would not have to be replaced quite so often.

We could do the same in regards to those companies who hire illegals or import 'legal' workers in lieu of hiring Americans.