Global Chemotherapy

I remember hearing Donald Trump being described somewhere as “Political Chemotherapy.” At that time, I didn’t quite appreciate that description but as I sit at home reading news of the daily outbreaks of the coronavirus and the Trump administrations mishandling of the outbreak, I am gaining a greater appreciation of that description.

Trump’s latest tirade is against the World Health Organisation (“WHO”), which he’s described as being “China-Centric,” and has recently declared that he intends to cut funding to the WHO. It’s stating the obvious that his tirades against the WHO at a time when the outbreaks of coronavirus cases in the USA (434,144) is more than the cases in the next three highest places (Spain – 148,220, Italy – 139,442 and Germany -113,296) combined is unhelpful and counter-productive.

However, Trump has helped to remind us that the world has been, for far too long, unhealthily dependent on America and American leadership. America has been the key to every world issue. If you want security, get the American military to set up a base in your region. If you want economic growth, export to America. If you want advanced technology, send your brightest to an American University. I live the example of this – Singapore and the ASEAN region as a whole went from poverty to wealth in a single generation because our business model was simple – sell goods to America and the American fleet that was parked in Subic Bay meant that all of us in ASEAN refrained from getting involved in military conflicts with each other.

America remains the biggest funder of global organisations. Just name a global body and you’ll find that the US is inevitably its biggest funder and “world bodies,” providing “world solutions,” mean “American bodies,” and “American solutions.”

If Donald Trump’s tirades against the WHO should do anything for us, it is to make the rest of us understand that we can no longer look to America for leadership and solutions to global problems. Somehow, the world has to solve its own problems. Global bodies like the UN, IMF and World Bank in particular have to find a way of not being dependent on the American tax payer and being at the mercy of what we’d call America’s increasingly dysfunctional political system.

Ironically, the greatest beneficiary from the Trump Administration may be the world’s favourite bogyman – China. While China’s companies have a large domestic market to cushion them from a global battle with the US, many of China’s businesses realise that they cannot depend on it. Ren Zhengfei, Huawei’s CEO has gone out of his way to become a global diplomat, trying to show the benign face of Chinese capitalism and more importantly, Huawei and other Chinese firms have become painfully aware of their dependence of the US to provide the necessary parts for their business and so rushed to develop their own technology. China may end up shooting up the technology food chain because the Trump Administration gave it a need to do so.

The inevitable global fall out against China as a result of the coronavirus will force it to restructure a few things. Brand China will need to contribute more to global organisations in future, rather to do business while letting America fund and protect the rest of the world.

The European Union, likewise, will need to look towards doing more for its own defense rather than waiting for America to do it for them. I’m old enough to remember when the former Yugoslavia went to the dogs. I sat in the UK (then part of “civilized” Europe) while people were slaughtered in Europe. The French and Germans remained either unable or unwilling to send a force into their own backyard to stop atrocities that the modern generation had only read about in history classes.  

America will suffer from the Trump Administration’s incompetence and the rest of the world will suffer along with it. However, as we go through the social and economic pains, we should learn to find our own independence and not to rely on a great power. Leadership is necessary but we need to learn to survive and thrive in spite of it rather than because of it.