Naewna on May 18, 2019

The current world is full of risks: China-U.S. trade war is an example.

I always say that Thais must also have global perspective. They must look at the Macro level and adjust it to the Micro level. Nowadays, the world is full of problems. Some may come from the outside world but affect Thailand. One example is BREXIT or the U.K.’s membership resignation from EU which I mentioned on my TV Program. When I follow this news, I do not understand why Prime Minister Theresa May plays this role. When I have in-depth study on this, I start to understand that it is a never-ending problem. The problems still co-exist with the EU resignation and the membership. The politics vote for the BREXIT. It cannot come back any more.

Today, I would like to discuss another topic with the readers. It is about the China-U.S. trade war. From superficial level, the U.S. just has trade deficit. The U.S. sells less to China. The easy solution is that China under the leadership of Xi Jinping pleases Trump. Trump has supporters’ base in the farming states like soy bean which China imports more. To lessen the U.S. trade deficit, China must import more Boeings.

When I follow this news, there is hidden agenda. This trade war is the war on the future world between China and the U.S. investment in high technology. We know that China is always good at violating intellectual property without paying the proper fee. Then, China will no longer sell cheap products. It will sell expensive things and will also affect the U.S. national security in the future. They will become more strategic supplies. China steals several kinds of digital technology without paying the full copyright to the owners. Instead of low technology products, China currently export high technology products related to security. One example is Huawei mobile phone. In this negotiation, China not only gets trade balance. It is the competition in high technology related to the national security and copyrights. In the future, China will have to beware of copyright violations which have been lasting for a long time. More negotiations on technology copyright compensation must be done.

Trump’s strength is that he knows well what China is doing and the problems it has. However, his weakness is his negotiation skill. He always expresses his ideas on Twitter. This embarrassed Xi Jinping. Trump does not understand this. He should apply my HRDS Theory so that China does not have pressure during negotiation. Both sides will get win-win results.

My HRDS Theory promotes happiness capital in working with other people and effective and efficient human capital management and comprises of these elements.

1. Happiness

2. Respect

3. Dignity

4. Sustainability

Trump underestimated and used this approach to pressure Xi Jinping and China to surrender. However, China did not. The rising tax will raise the unit price of U.S. agricultural exports to China. Then, Trump will lose popularity. He will lose in the 2020 election. Xi Jinping will not have to pass the election process.

I would like to leave these concepts here. The readers may see that the U.S.-China trade war is the issue between two countries. However, it dramatically poses negative impacts on the world economy. It will also affect Thai economy. Please deeply think about these problems.

Finally, I had the opportunity to sign MOU as the academic advisor of International Students for Hospitality Internship Program. This program will take students from India and South Asian countries to join the short courses at Phuket Rajabhat University and internship program at the leading hotels in Phuket and the South of Thailand. There are 4 partner organizations: Phuket Rajabhat University, Thai Hotels Association Southern Chapter, Chira Academy and GBC Oversea Consultant Company Limited. It was a great honor to have Mr. Thanyawat Charnpinit, Vice Governor of Phuket to preside and witness this MOU signing ceremony.

The strength of this program is to create cooperation among several parties like Phuket Rajabhat University, hotel businesses and me. The main mission is to accommodate Indian tourists. I know from Phuket tourism business sector that they will come as many as Chinese. We must make sure that we are ready to support and adapt to them.

Besides income generation, tourism must take care of environment. Mr. Thanyawat Charnpinit, Vice Governor of Phuket said that Phuket was in a very poor condition. Besides environment protection, tourism must generate GDP per Capita and sustainability.

Prof .Dr. Chira Hongladarom 

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Source: Learning from Reality Column. Naewna. Saturday 18 May 2019, p.5