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How China’s Record Trade Surplus Helped Spark Trump’s Tariff War

Blaming China is part of finding-someone-to-blame tradition. The Muslim, the migrant, the Russian, the unions, the West vs. 'Islam', etc. Years of stagnation, decline in competition with China, rentier economies inabilities to resume capitalist growth after 2008/2009, etc. have created tensions among capitalist states. Forget the cheap goods enjoyed by Westerners for years. Forget the billions made by Western multinationals in China.  US's protectionism and relative decline is just one of the outcomes of 'globalisation'. China is now a demon and the 'the innocent West’ is a victim that must do something to stop its relative economic decline/stagnation. Rearmament is meant for China, not Russia .  “Structurally, this crisis is one of overaccumulation.  Chronic stagnation places mounting pressure on the political and military agents of transnational capital to crack open new spaces of accumulation.”  Meanwhile, let's focus on Trump's unpreditable decision...
As Trump raises tariffs on Chinese goods (again) , a big picture of world trade since mid-19th-century is very useful. After a historical level of a 'globalisation' wave/openess, the U.S. sees its hegemony threatened and its power in relative decline vis-a-vis the rising of new powers like China. Thus it wants reassert itself. That makes the possiblities of conflicts in the coming decade higher. World trade and capitalism