In an interview with Radio Radicale, former Italian government official Michele Geraci is asked how China is doing in the trade dispute. “Very well,” Geraci answers, because “China has things which are needed by the USA, and we must ask ourselves a real question: it is okay if we sell wine, if we sell some luxury bags, if we sell pharma products, but is there really something the US could not produce by itself? Or, in other words, does the US economy collapse if they don’t buy a designer bag? On the other hand, they need Chinese goods, raw materials, rare earths, and much more—and, especially, their market. It is not only about China, which is already a large market, but China boosts the entire South-East Asia, Central Asia and part of Africa as well. Europe, a continent with high GDP, has zero growth. The US is interested in trading with the US because, with a high GDP, we have a high purchase capacity. But we do not have growth. Therefore, if a US company wants to grow, it must necessarily have good commercial relationships with China, 1.4 billion people, and the rest of Asia which is driven by China.
“China’s power is that through the BRICS, through the Silk Road, it took leadership of this multipolar world, of those six billion people who have a low income but grow. Therefore, what does an intelligent American businessman? He keeps good relationships with Europe, say Apple, keeps selling smartphones to us to keep the hard core, but he knows that growth comes from China, from South-East Asia, from ASEAN and Africa. This is China’s bargaining power, which we have not yet understood because we think we are the center of the world. This illusion creates strategic errors. It is like thinking one is the strongest, while the rest of the world knows that growth strength is elsewhere.”
