China Trade War - Layman's Guide

Without getting too technical, what's the deal with this trade war?

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[saddog]

you actually make the whole trade war understandable to someone like me with no finical and political backgrounds, thank you.

[karlp]

I have an "A"-level in economics, so I know the *theory* that tariffs are bad for everyone. But when one side (China) slaps huge tariffs on imports and other countries don't, the only solution is to go tit for tat until a level playing field is established. I, unfortunately, think that the West needs to send China to dunce school to learn some lessons the hard way. Tax the hell out of them and establish free trade agreements with places like India, Thailand, Vietnam etc It's the only language they understand. At the end of the day, China needs the US as an export customer orders of magnitude more than the US needs China and China needs to be taught that lesson. Play nice or fuck off.

[garethifan]

Thanks for an honest and objective report on the situation. Trump is absolutely right in this. End the unfair advantage now!

[songkim]

Many foreign companies are already starting to pull out of china to relocate to Vietnam

[Almostbakerzero]

Actually, the reason for cheap shipping isnt (just) subsidization from chinese government. The Universal Postal Union is. Basically the major players in shipping from every country sit in this union. They basically agreed on supporting third world countries by making the shipping cheaper for them. China profits from this massively. That is why they can offer free shipping (which isnt free for them, just heavily subsidized) via China post. However, you will never be offfered a way to return a good, since the route back to China is not subsidized.
Also, that is why alternative ways of shipping like EMS express are still extremely expensive when ordering from china. its because only the government-run China Post can claim the subsidization from Universal Postal Union.

[ekelley]

Had a business in Vietnam years ago. They offered no taxes on company earning for 5 years after showing a profit. Then 1/2 of normal tax for the next three years. A company could be formed relatively easily. Some draw backs included monthly required visits to the Tax authorities and visits to your company where the tax officials expected a "gift" when they left. I never gave them one and they would call my secretary later in the day and tell her "your boss don't no how to treat officials."

[piercedfreak]

First I must say I am American, so I’m probably biased. From my understanding of the trade war the main thing that Trump and America wants this for the system to be fair. China has been treated like a developing nation for probably the past 20 years. China should have lost developing nation status years ago but because they have a deep continue to get benefits the other already developed countries don’t get the Chinese clearly develop now and has a huge economy. One of the main things with the trade war is intellectual property theft. How can we continue do you have an open and fair market with China when they steal our technology and continue to not have an open fair market with American companies coming to China.

[vertie]

Really patiently explained in detail. Well done!

[elamparithiparithi]

Your analogy to Chinese trade practices is pretty correct.

[BrogeKilrain]

China Ebay sellers pay less to send Shanghai to NY than a NYer pays to ship 300 mi away. Its all part of UN Swiss postal deal subsidize undeveloped nations

[ggarzagarcia]

Smash that like button for serpentza, phenomenal work. Especially from a 10+ year perspective. Keep it up with the videos!

[erickrcisneros]

I realized this exact same thing when I was in School and I needed Micro SD cards for memory on various devices, for school work .
They would cost $20, 30, 40, 50 dollars each.
I’d look online and they’d be half the price, from China. Long story short, the ones I bought were empty shells with no chips inside.
When it occurred to me to return it, that’s when it all hit me, I started questioning how these things worked.
This was 2005

[larrylaffer]

Shipping fee advantages has been a chinese god given right since ancient times.

[BuzWeaver]

Thank you Winston. You're Vlogging about China has really been an incredible learning experience. I taught you guys quite often on my channel. Thank you for addressing this issue specifically.

[chuckdickens]

I have worked in China for 14 years in the international trade business. All of the expats I know that work in the same field, all of them, agree with the tariffs. We agree with everything he has said in this video, even as the resulting downturn affects our businesses. CNN, CNBC, BBC everybody is trying to explain the "trade war" but honestly as a person who lives in the middle of it, this video is the only one I have seen that can sum up the WHAT and the WHY logically and simply. The UPU classification benefits are a great example. It was like welfare or the doll. Yea, it's there to help. But once you start wippin a new car, sporting a Gucci bag, you don't need welfare anymore. Don't start playing the victim because now you have to play by the big boy rules (i.e. legal enforcement of IP). Get it together 同志们。

[rfdsdf]

Every western company should 100% pull out of chinese manufacturing.

[limingxu]

Surely China had help from developed countries but it's not like they did it out of the kindness in their heart. Wallstreet pushed the American gov to give China a good deal because they are shipping from China in bulks. Western companies as well as consumers have benefited a lot from the cheap labor in China and now that China is getting expensive they are moving on. It's gonna happen someday, tariff or not.

[zyxyuv]

You should make an episode about "Why it's safe for me to live in China while opposing government views"

[Biotrog]

Thank you for bringing some clarity to this subject. Your awesome!

[jnickence]

Interesting explanation. I don't exactly consider myself a 'layman', but this is an underlying foundation I didn't know of before. Thank you very much.