Photo: IC

According to the Wall Street Journal, US President Donald Trump on May 15 issued an executive order starting a 150-day review of the US telecommunications supply chain and he was considering "requiring that next-generation 5G cellular equipment used in the US be designed and manufactured outside China," a move that could "reshape global manufacturing." 

This news, together with the US Commerce Department's move on Friday to add five Chinese companies to its Entity List, has deepened people's impression of US attempts to further strike at China's high-tech industry. But the latest news indicates that the US is not only asking its allies to boycott the products of Chinese companies such as Huawei but also with its market leverage trying to force multinational companies to withdraw their production lines from China.

Some Americans may believe: If this works, the US can copy this practice to intimidate more multinational corporations, and thus "reshape global manufacturing" as the US media said.

But that is way too simple and wishful. As the world's second largest market, China is rapidly approaching the US in terms of market size. Certain markets in China have even surpassed those in the US. Some in the US are accustomed to thinking of their country as the world's largest market. The Wall Street Journal loosely called the US the world's largest market for telecom equipment and services. But it is already controversial.

China's 4G base stations are roughly 10 times that of the US. Mobile e-commerce, including mobile payment, is highly developed in Chinese society. We have no idea how the Wall Street Journal figured out that the US remains the world's largest telecommunications market, and how Americans' confidence can remain firm.

If the US forces enterprises including Nokia and Ericsson to move production lines out of China, their business prospects in China will certainly be affected. China's telecommunications market will continue to expand. Compelling multinational corporations to take sides is inconsistent with their interests. Even if implemented, such a move will be at the razor's edge.

Without a clear mind, the US is intervening in economics with politics. Such thinking will become a habit once formed. We can hardly pin our hopes on reasoning things out with the US which will stubbornly insist on its own ideas.

China should step up market expansion and establish an independent research and development mechanism. We need to stimulate consumption and continuously release dynamic forces into the consumption chain.

We must be clear that China needs to fight a "people's war" to make the US re-understand China's economic resilience and social vitality. We must fully activate China's economy, ignite all economic end-points, increase income and promote consumption of the common people. We should never underestimate the "low-end" economy at the grassroots level, because its prosperity will provide the most basic support for injecting momentum upwards.

Every city, county and village of China should vitalize the economy and satisfy the Chinese people, which will create jobs, expand the market and create virtuous cycles. This is the glamour of the Chinese market and also China's non-official "weapon" to win the US-launched trade war. 

American people will feel the pain if the world is deprived of China's huge market.