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Donald Trump, the US president, announced a plan of reciprocal taxes in April, claiming that Americans had been taken advantage of by” fakers” and “pillaged” by foreigners. Since then, property markets around the world have plummeted, and worry has spread that Trump’s techniques will cause a slowdown that risks bringing down the structure of business that has been in place since the end of World War II.
The Financial Times and the  soon caused a strong reaction, with the  calling Trump’s actions “utter insanity” and” an act of war against the entire world.” Trump is now regarded as one of the world’s most overbearing and uncertain officials.
The library of the Foreign Correspondents ‘ Club of Japan contains a beautiful lighthouse that puts lighting on Trump’s unexpected behavior. This is an audio recording of Trump, who traveled to Japan 32 centuries ago as a business but not as a politician.
Trump attended a media luncheon at the FCCJ on August 18, 1993, while visiting Tokyo, which was the Yurakucho Denki Building at the time. He was in the method of discussing different business enterprises such as real property and games, but instantly changed the subject to the business disparity between Japan and the United States. In his opinion, “morons” had been used to represent America during past US-Japan business negotiations. He stated:
I think the Chinese diplomats have done one of the wonderful tap-tap-taps always. That’s kicking off the conversation, giving absolutely nothing, and making the American idiots say,” Thank you.”
The US was demanding the beginning of industries like cars, electronics, and supercomputers because the country had a significant trade imbalance with Japan at the time. Dissatisfied with the gradual development of the conversations, Trump singled out Carla Hills,  , the US deal agent under President George HW Bush, for condemnation:
Carla Hills said that we must realize that it takes time, but it really doesn’t take time when I look at the job that she did. It doesn’t take much time at all. Free business doesn’t get day. You can’t relax for four or eight years without experiencing free deal.
He continued:
The Chinese friends I’ve seen over the last few times– and they’re really great friends – they themselves grin at the foolishness of my state. They laugh because they all recognize what I ‘m , right? They claim I’m correct, but they’re correct.
There was a portentousness to Trump’s notes.  ,
On September 2, 1987, Trump had published an open letter in big American publications, including the New York Times , and the Washington Post, six years prior to his press conference in Tokyo. The email sharply criticized Japan and other countries for taking advantage of the US over the previous years:
As we defend the Persian Gulf, an area of only marginal value for the United States ‘ crude materials but on which Japan and other countries are almost entirely dependent, the story continues unabated. Why don’t these countries compensate the United States for the billions of dollars we are losing to protect their and their passions?
The earth is laughing at America’s officials as we protect boats we don’t possess, carrying petrol we don’t want, destined for allies who didn’t help.
From this viewpoint, we can see that Trump’s view was developed in the late 1980s or early 1990s, and that the speech he uses currently has no significantly altered. In other words, he is also residing in the world of 1993.  ,
Trump’s rage toward the US government for no quickly resolving Japan’s enormous trade deficit with the US, at a time when Japan was the second-largest economy in the world, can be attributed to his position. And Trump’s intention was to use the mutual tariffs to combat the business imbalance, which he announced last month.  ,
The impact of 1993 is what is crucial here.
The Berlin Wall fell only four years prior, tearing down the Iron Curtain that had divided Europe since World War II. In December 1991, the Soviet Union had collapsed. After being defeated, communism was suddenly over, and it could be anticipated that Western-style democracy and capitalism would soon become practiced everywhere. Americans had a sense of hope and awe among others.
Unfortunately, Trump was confronting several challenges to his organizations at the time.
Trump had expanded his business empire into hotels, games, and an airport in the 1980s, but he ended up with enormous bills. One of those businesses, Trump Shuttle, operated a flight that connected Boston to New York, Washington, DC, and Washington, DC. But, after Iraq’s Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August 1990, gas prices surged and customer need dropped, while expenses of running an aircraft soared. Trump later sold it to a rival.
He told investigators at the FCCJ,” This is what I’m doing.
I was unhappy in going into a really horrible company, something called the flight business. Have any of you worked for an flight? I’ll show you that this is the worst company ever.
President Bush marshaled the US-led foreign troops, attacking Iraq and effectively free Kuwait. Trump, however, referred to the first Gulf War as a” shame”:
Nothing is aware of the true cost that the United States incurred during this conflict. Anyone knows. And we received no fair compensation for it. And we were dumb.
Ironically, Trump has agreed on a package with Ukraine for its material assets, which he described as payment for military support the , US , had provided to Kyiv since Russia launched its full-scale war in February 2022. Given the trauma and significant harm the Gulf War had caused to Trump’s organization, it may seem like a crazy idea at first glance. However, it is natural.
Another crucial factor in knowing Trump was fidelity, which was revealed at the FCCJ press event. He looked up on the day when his company struggled in the 1990s, and compared it to battle:
When you engage in a battle, you learn stuff about who is dedicated and who is not. You discover who your friends are, but the truth is that you can’t really tell. I wish I may say that anyone with golden locks or black hair or black skin or mild skin was devoted. But that’s just how it works. People I would have bet the ranch on ruined my life, please excuse me for the phrase.
He added:
I say that I’d like to be in trouble at some point in my life so that I can determine who will be loyal and who will not be. You do learn a lot about loyalty, I suppose. And I think it’s a very important word.
Trump has kept his word and appointed people to cabinet positions based on their loyalty. Additionally, he demands that anyone who wants to work for the government be given loyalty checks. To Trump, loyalty is everything.
Loyalty may be the answer to everything, but irony was in his circumstances. Investors in Hong Kong and Japan were the people who fervently backed Trump when he was trying to get out of a difficult business situation. At the FCCJ, he said this about his supporters:
Both Japan and Hong Kong make up our largest customer base. And I just want to thank so many of them for sticking with me. They did buy my , products. They did visit my casino and, perhaps most importantly, negotiate deals with me on casino bonds.
Yet Trump made the announcement to impose reciprocal tariffs on Japan, one of his main supporters, last month. Unfortunately, it appears that those who were loyal to Trump were not treated with reciprocation.
We have a lot of insight from Trump’s Tokyo press conference 32 years ago, as well as the principles that govern his behavior. In terms of foreign affairs, defense, the economy, and personnel, those remarks remain completely consistent with his current actions and policies. They might even be said to have been prophetic. In that regard, Trump’s words and actions have always been consistent.  ,
His speech contained only one remark that could be regarded as contradictory. If Trump had continued to follow his words with the same conviction, he might have altered both the history of the United States and the world as well.
He stated to his Tokyo audience,” I’m not running for office.  , Who cares if I’m politically correct”?
Writer Eiichiro Tokumoto was born and raised in Tokyo.
The FCCJ’s Number 1 Shimbun published this article at the beginning. It is republished with permission, updated to reflect the fact that the Ukraine minerals deal has been agreed upon.
In my book Red Pockets, estate issues are explored. What are we owed to past centuries, both, and to the places we live in?
After nearly a century of generational division due to migration, war, and revolution, I was inspired to visit my ancient town in Guangdong in southern China. I’ve always wanted to visit this corn village because my grandfather wrote about it in his published memoirs.
During a research trip to investigate the effects of chemical waste on Guangdong in the spring of 2018, I suddenly had the chance.
My trip came at the same time as the Qingming festival in April, when people go back to their ancient villages to clean their family ‘ tombs, burn paper money and make food offerings for them in the future.
My father had described my ancestral village as being generally alive, among the rice fields and brick buildings in the western style. In Taishan region, which is known as the “home of international Taiwanese” due to its history of international emigration during the later 19th century’s western gold rushes, there are many similar clan villages.
navigating various social expectations was a moving but disconcerting experience that nearly made it into a comedy of errors. One of the village’s oldest residents still recalls my mother’s turbulent past, which turned out to be problematic.
During the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s, my grandparents died unexpectedly, their graves were lost, and our hereditary home was taken over.
It would be impossible to rebuild my family’s place in the village; instead, we would have to construct a new home and give cash to all the clan members in blessed red pockets. Nothing could yet subsequently repair the past century’s ruptures.
What were the repercussions of not clearing the coffins every flower after watching the Qingming tomb-sweeping rituals in the hills?
When I returned to the UK, I carried tales of waste and ancestry abuse with me. As I continued my investigation into dangerous pollution and climate injustice, they stayed with me and began to take on new meaning. I came to the conclusion that neglected ancestors are hungry ghosts who cause misery and harm the environment in Chinese folk religion.
As the climate crisis grew worse, I couldn’t help but feel as though the hungry ghosts apparently embodied the social experiences of weather grief, illness, and stress.
After being let down by COP26 in Glasgow, I came up with the idea to create Red Pockets. Two seemingly disparate ideas came together as I considered the “heavy debt that we owe” to both current and future generations: the personal account of my “return” to my ancient town and the more general account of how to deal with the devastating effects of the weather problems.
I wanted to write a guide that explored the possibility of recovery and the difficulty of regaining lost worlds.
Writing included grappling with both different concepts and my own unique personality. In a way that felt authentic, the hungry souls were challenging to awaken.
I initially tried a more scientific approach by studying Chinese folk religions ‘ beliefs about burial and death rituals and global severe climate catastrophe.
But as soon as I could, I realized that the analogy was very thin and that I needed to speak about hungry souls from a different angle. They appeared to have a unique lifestyle after they emerged.
A divided home, a divided earth, a failing to talk, a failure to honor are the themes of eager ghosts’ interactions between the material and the moral. They want us to honor our cracked promises.
The weight started to slowly start to fall as I moved toward more encouraging designs in the book’s last chapters. I came to the realization that there are ways to live with spirits, including recognizing delight and hopeless times and opportunities for connection despite isolation and loving actions to “defend our estates and ourselves.” An providing was what I was looking for, exactly.
At the University of Glasgow, Professor Alice Mah teaches industrial and economic reports.
This content was republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the text of the content.
The American-Chinese business conflict is the one that matters most. It’s not as simple as you might think to handicap the probable outcome.
It is accurate to say that the US has a lot of tickets. China makes a lot of money in the US. However, Chinese people also have some accounts.
In many ways, the US-China conflict is the most significant. Begin with the length. The two largest economies in the world industry$ 583 billion in diplomatic business. ( China’s$ 295 billion trade deficit is by far the biggest of our accumulated. )
China is crucial because it challenges the US’s position in the world in terms of geopolitical, technological, and economic terms. The war’s underlying causes include concern about China’s supremacy of world manufacturing and America’s reliance on China’s companies.
The conflict is undoubtedly significant to American producers and landowners. China has a sizable market for foreign agricultural goods. Prior to President Donald Trump’s first-term tariffs, the US was China’s preferred company supplier. China’s involvement in US agricultural goods is more eroding as a result of this trade war.
Warriors in large battles use large weapons. Trump’s tax on Chinese goods is nearly three times higher than his next-highest charge, which was 145 percent. China retaliated by imposing 12 % levies on US products, and it has since stopped selling some of the crucial nutrients we are unable to purchase elsewhere.
Trump has recently indicated that he will decrease the tariffs on China, but he hasn’t disclosed how many. Both parties have begun granting specific products deductions. Although talks have been ongoing, discussions have been ongoing.
In this conflict, who will prevail? Wining a shooting war means inflicting casualties on the enemy could endure. The important question to look at is each country’s capacity to tolerate problems, assuming that definition applies to business wars.
Personal consumption expenses make up nearly 70 % of GDP in the U.S. business, which is consumption-driven. We buy a lot of what we don’t make from China because we consume more food than we produce. Some Foreign goods are not available from another country. There is already rumors of a Christmas toys deficit.
Voters may be unsatisfied if taxes end up leading to higher prices, empty aisles, and a slowing economy with fewer work. The leader is aware that his goal was to lower costs rather than raise them. The ability of America to maintain its hold on power may be undermined by an inflationary surge.
Common view is not the only issue facing us. Economic businesses are also anxious. This administration has a tendency to react when they fall.
China, on the other hand, has a production-driven business. Only 40 % of GDP is consumed by households. Because China produces more than it consumes, imports are a major factor in its business.
China’s biggest trade business is located in the US. Chinese factories may close and employ people will lose jobs if tariffs efficiently mark a large portion of our market. That is already taking shape. It will only get worse.
However, there is no election of Chinese rulers. They have a solid hand in power and are not required to be as opinion-sensitive as American officials. They are also less receptive to businesses. China’s leaders have the power to simply appoint large buyers not to buy, as they have apparently done in the past.
It’s informative to understand what took place during the worst times of the COVID-19 crisis. Past looked wide open when China put in place a zero-Covid plan. severe lockdowns, quarantines, screening, and mask requirements were included.
Beijing remained with it for almost two decades despite the economic suffering caused by this. Only after widespread” white paper protests” ( in which large numbers of Chinese held up blank sheets of paper hinting at their intentions ) did their leaders start to resign.
China has two more cards to play. Federal spending is at least temporarily boost the economy by removing private consumption from exports.
There is also a political feeling. Beijing is urging China to start a long-running conflict with the “bully” US.
Is China eliminate large mill layoffs in the same way that it eliminated Covid? That is not clear.
Is the US stop market turmoil, slowing growth, and rising inflation? That is also unanswered.
There are obvious problems factors on both sides, but that’s not all. No one has all the tickets in their hands.
It might not be simple to reach a package that allows both parties to declare success. Which side you manage to appear to be backing over. Additionally, the Chinese must know what President Trump wants in particular.
He occasionally seems to be urging China to put an end to its business surplus. China would need to significantly lower its US sales in order to do that. He has recently mentioned” large” Foreign purchases of American goods.
We’re a long way from giving everything away from United farmers and ranchers, though that might be beneficial. The Taiwanese are skilled bargainers. They might believe that time is running out.
The conflict has only just begun.
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Mr. Wong expressed his gratitude for Mr. Heng’s “extensive accomplishments” to Singapore in a letter to him.  ,
Mr. Wong noted that Mr. Heng had dedicated his “tired running life” to the service of Singapore and its citizens.
The primary minister mentioned that Mr. Heng first served as a police officer before moving on to the Administrative Service, where he held important posts, including as managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore and permanent secretary of the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
Mr. Heng next entered politics, “mastering every plan detail and working hard to design a better future for Singapore,” according to Mr. Wong, who “applied rigour and dedication” to every position he held.
Mr. Heng “believed greatly in nurturing the full potential of every infant, regardless of their starting place,” according to Mr. Wong, as Minister for Education.  ,
Under his leadership, subject-based joining was implemented, the position of secondary colleges was changed, and subject-based banding was implemented. He also advised planning to expand the number of level options available to Singaporeans, leading to the Singapore Institute of Technology becoming the second intelligent university in the nation.  ,
Mr. Wong praised Mr. Heng’s desire for Singapore to become a learning culture, and SkillsFuture was created, launching a nationwide movements for lifelong learning, under his management.  ,
Mr. Heng was” a solid and trusted custodian” of Singapore’s fiscal tools as Minister for Finance, the prime secretary said.  ,
Mr. Wong remarked that Mr. Heng had to make difficult choices in order to guarantee lasting income, such as increasing the Goods and Services Tax. However, he also created a detailed Assurance Package that made sure that households with middle and lower incomes wouldn’t suffer the raise.
Mr. Heng delivered five expenses when COVID-19 struck, according to Mr. Wong, to save lives and ensure the recovery of Singapore from the issue.
Your steady management, joy in the face of pressure, and worry for regular Singaporeans gave stability and reassurance in those trying times, added Mr. Wong.
Mr. Heng also played a significant role in improving Singapore’s market, according to Mr. Wong, in order to provide great opportunities for all Singaporeans.  ,
Mr. Heng furthermore strengthened Singapore’s relations to global partners in order to expand its economic potential.
Owing to his achievements, Singapore now has a more active research and innovation ecosystem that is effective both on global issues like climate change and aging, according to Mr. Wong.
The primary minister continued, stating that Mr. Heng was a “bold and clever” politician who had a “bold and intellectual” approach to community development.
You constantly upheld the guiding principle of support above self throughout your career. You accepted this responsibility in 2018, when the 4G squad unanimously selected you to lead our organization, Mr. Wong said in reference to the PAP’s fourth-generation staff.
However, you sincerely stepped apart to let the team chose a younger head with a longer runway after COVID-19 delayed the change.
” I merely wish our association could have been greater. You have been a staunch friend and comrade, the excellent minister continued.
Mr. Wong noted that while he and Mr. Heng both entered elections at the same time, Mr. Heng was also a top and would always be helpful in his guidance and guidance.  ,
Mr. Wong concluded his letter by saying,” It has been a pleasure to serve alongside you in the Ministries of Education and Finance, in our battle against COVID-19, in Cabinet, and in politics more broadly.
Thank you for your many years of devoted service to Singapore and our persons, on behalf of all Singaporeans. In your pension, I wish you good health, happiness, and tranquility.
The UK and India have come to an agreement on a trade deal that will lower the tax burden on India’s exports of clothing and footwear and make it easier for UK businesses to trade cars and other goods to India.
According to the English government, the package does not change immigration policies, including those aimed at Indian students studying in the UK.
Company Secretary Jonathan Reynolds referred to the “massive” advantages that UK businesses and consumers are receiving.
Trade between the UK and India reached £41 billion last year, which was already expected to increase, but the government claimed the agreement may increase that industry by an extra £25.5 billion annually by 2040.
Last week, Mr. Reynolds and his American rival Piyush Goyal met in London to put the finishing touches on the agreement.
According to the Department for Business, UK customers were likely to benefit from the decline in tariffs on products entering the country from India once it comes into force, which may take up to a month.
The state also emphasized the advantages of UK businesses expanding exports to India for economic growth and the creation of new jobs.
In a few years, India is expected to become the third-largest economy in the world.
The US President Donald Trump’s tax campaign has given other nations more ideas on how to listen, and it has given more people the desire to strike trade deals.
The UK is also a top priority trading partner for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration, which has a challenging goal of increasing exports by$ 1 trillion by 2030.
The state’s leader has urged officials to create better use of technology and gather data to understand customer preferences, calling on Hong Kong to welcome all types of tourists, regardless of how much money they spend.
During the five-day Labour Day “golden week” holiday, which was inaugurated on Tuesday, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu reported a 22 % increase in visitor numbers compared to the same period in 2024.
Prior to his regular meeting with the government’s best decision-making Executive Council, he said,” Hong Kong has to be a town that welcomes travelers. Because the picture of Hong Kong as a city that welcomes travelers is very important.
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Anything we do to generate any particular category of visitors feel as though they are not being welcomed may negatively impact Hong Kong’s reputation as a tourist destination.
” We must look at hospitality as a whole, so that every visitor will find their expertise in Hong Kong pleasant,” he said.” There will be high-end travelers and there will also be non-high-end travelers.
The Post reported on Monday that low-budget tours to Hong Kong costing as little as 68 yuan (US$9.35) had become a popular option among mainland Chinese visitors, sparking concerns about how such minimal spending by tourists in the city benefits the local economy.
Lee, acing up the president’s experience over the course of the five-day break, said there were many areas where authorities may review and improve.
According to him,” I have asked the Society, Sports, and Tourism Bureau and the important departments to summarize their experiences with the hospitality sector and provide a statement to the interdisciplinary working group on event arrangements in light of further improvements in handling crowd pressure points and the new preferences and travel patterns for tourists,” he said.
Making better use of systems and collecting information on visitors ‘ most recent interests are among these, Lee continued.
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