Mr Donald Trump, as president of the United States, the most powerful country and an economic superpower, you will be able to serve America and the world in a way that no one else can. I write this article to express my sincere wish for you to leave a legacy of peace and progress for humanity in this troubled world.
Following the ending note of my last article, in which I opined that the substance of all four initiatives put forward by President Xi Jinping, namely the Belt and Road Initiative, the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative, are all in the Sustainable Development Goals that were adopted by the United Nations in 2015. The world is facing such serious challenges and existential risks that it has never faced before. The shared human destiny is a fact. The US and China as the world’s two greatest nations must work together. Climate change is real and will not wait. While technology is advancing at a lightning speed and could allow us to contain climate change effectively if we work together, geopolitics is corroding our cooperation and trust. Sanctions are now routinely employed to target China. This really does not make any sense, given China’s long record of noninterference into other countries’ affairs and the fact that it has always held America as a friend since then-president Jimmy Carter established diplomatic relations with our country.
It is sad and disturbing that instead of working together to develop technology to benefit humanity, America has grown Sinophobic and is trying with all its might to contain China’s technological advance. But by “limiting China’s access to American technology”, the US is shooting itself in the foot. In an attempt to contain China’s rise, America excluded China from the International Space Station that it first developed. But China then developed its own Tiangong space station. It is remarkable that China has never excluded any country from its space station cooperation project. All countries are welcome to join as long as they comply with the UN principle of using outer space for peaceful purposes, intending to promote the progress of related science and technology fields, having a feasible technical plan and sound engineering capabilities so as not to pose a threat to the space station, and being able to bear the costs of project research and development on their own.
Both the military-industrial complex and the tech-industrial complex are after profits. But a world without peace is not sustainable. Wars, whether hot or cold, are destructive
Last year was confirmed by the Copernicus Climate Change Service to have been the warmest year on record globally, and the first calendar year that the average global temperature exceeded 1.5 degrees C above its preindustrial level. Moreover, each of the past 10 years (2015-24) was among the 10 warmest years on record. All this cannot be an aberration but confirms the fact that climate change is a fact.
An article published on Jan 13 on the online pro-nature platform Mongabay carried the headline World’s Record Heat Is Worsening Air Pollution and Health in Global South. It documented the degree to which the Global South, particularly India, Brazil and Nigeria, is suffering from climate change. The wildfires in Southern California, particularly in the Palisades, which broke out on Jan 7, show that climate change will not spare the Global North. Indeed, very expensive luxury homes were destroyed alongside others.
More than four years ago, a story in The Guardian warned that “Trump’s drone ban makes it harder to stop wildfires”. It was reported then that in October 2019, the US Department of the Interior (DoI) grounded its fleet of more than 800 drones and put a freeze on buying new ones, citing concerns about “Chinese spying”. Many of the devices were used in wildfire fighting and prevention, including starting prescribed burns, a key tool in controlling wildfire. The owner of 3DR, Chris Anderson, which supplied drones for the majority of flights carried out by the DoI — which manages the control of wildfires on federal land — said it was unfortunate that his company could no longer sell its drones to the DoI because they contained parts made in China.
It is interesting to note that in his farewell speech, Joe Biden warned Americans of a “tech-industrial complex”, words that echoed then-president Dwight Eisenhower’s reference to the dangers of a “military-industrial complex” in his farewell speech in 1961. I applaud your pro-peace stance and wonder if you would agree that the military industrial complex has too much sway on American politics. Both the military-industrial complex and the tech-industrial complex are after profits. But a world without peace is not sustainable. Wars, whether hot or cold, are destructive. China has contributed to America’s success today and has been able to make those contributions only because its economy has grown rapidly. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook remarked not long ago that there would be no Apple as it is today without China. The same can be said for General Motors. More than 10 years ago, Forbes published an article telling the “untold story” of how GM was really saved from bankruptcy after it was hit by the global financial tsunami.
Mr Trump, I sincerely hope that you will make America truly great again as a nation that deserves global respect.
The author is an adjunct research professor at Pan Sutong Shanghai-Hong Kong Economic Policy Research Institute and Economics Department, Lingnan University.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
