Andy Xie
China must draw the right lessons from Japan’s trade war with the US, and develop its technology
- The Plaza Accord, which pushed up the yen, didn’t break the Japanese economy, which was in a good place to begin with. But China, which has a lower average income, can’t afford to make the same policy mistakes as Japan
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The United States’ trade war with China reminds people of a similar episode between the
in the 1980s. Ironically, Japan’s ruling elite have been telling the Chinese in private for many years that the US would
to China one day. The current situation seems to vindicate the Japanese pessimism, which makes the lessons from Japan highly important to China’s strategic thinking. Unfortunately, the wrong lessons could be drawn.
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Japan’s big failure was not expanding its competitive scope. When the asset crash crippled the balance sheets of its banks and big companies, Japan went into defensive mode, hanging onto what it had. Consequently, it continues to lead in automobiles,
, precision parts and machinery, but it has largely missed the internet technology boom.