The question is hypothetical, but it has the potential to be the most soul-searching one of our generation one day.
Judging from the current global trend, China is being victimized, and Donald Trump’s America is bullying it. Not just that. His United States has caused worldwide stock market chaos and been cursed left and right.
The backtracking has not helped him much. In fact, it has underlined a widespread impression of a hot-headed and ruthless superpower leader who rarely thinks through possible consequences of his actions.
History shows trade tensions preceded world wars without fail. Trump is unequivocally and solely responsible for the ongoing dread. Although he has slowed down extreme tariff stance somewhat, his belligerence towards China of all the countries continues. A big real war, therefore, remains a possibility.
So, if a war breaks out, in other words if Trump fights with China with missiles and nuclear, whose side are you on?
What will England say? What will the rest of Europe say? What will Canada say? What will Southeast Asia say? What will American Democrats say? What will the millions of “free world” people marching against Trump all over the globe recently say?
Last but not least, what will stock traders say?
Denouncing Trump and you will be denouncing a system that elects him to the presidency. Supporting him and you will be supporting a leader who has signed executive orders that threatened to torpedo the world economy and sincerely believes he has done the right thing.
Backing Trump’s America is backing almost four more years of wildly-treacherous economic uncertainties. If he and Xi Jinping stand in front of you and you are the only one who is armed but there is only one bullet in your gun, what will you do to save the world?
Whom will you shoot?
Trump is a product of democracy as we know it. Many “elected” leaders are like him, and we have always been told to tolerate whatever democracy churns out, otherwise the system will never work. Two wrongs will never make a right. That’s what students of democracy have always been taught. A coup is a no-no.
In that sense, we must grit our teeth and shoot Xi.
But bear in mind how close Trump was to destroying globalization just weeks into his second term. Which means that he can still do it until the next election because you have spared his life.
Sparing him means you may have to live with absurdly-dangerous trade protectionism, a major cause of every big war and something democracy will never take without very good reasons. Sparing him means sparing a man American protesters make a giant balloon caricature of in an unmistakable form of a dictator.
Killing Xi and Trump wins. Trump wins and democracy probably dies. That’s what millions of Americans and their sympathisers all over the world are thinking.
But also bear in mind that the free world has always been told China is a big enemy of democracy. If you shoot Trump, Xi wins. Can you live with a great victory of democracy’s “great enemy”?
Remember, democracy as we know it can lose, too, if Xi wins. And it’s not just a case of a small democracy up against a tiny authoritarian country. Both Trump’s America and Xi’s China are superpowers, whose fates definitely dictate the world’s.
Nobody know for certain what is driving Trump. Some say he wants to make the world ditch globalization or pluralism and restore monism. He may be thinking “America is through being the giver! Enough with all the help that only makes others stronger but us weaker!”
For all the criticism, some analysts think he might be on the right track, although their reasons are absolutely different from his. America, those analysts believe, has been able to be a highly-generous “giver” because it can secretly “print money” at will.
This, they charge, is a hidden economic danger in the long run. It might be better to tank stock markets now than let the already-mammoth American debts accumulate and US monetary supplies become more suspicious, in which case the world’s economy, not just America’s, will be on a very thin ice.
Another school of thought on Trump’s motivation says he is simply impulsive, and naively so. That bullet which missed him possibly made him uncontrollably bolder.
Whatever his motive is, he is threatening to destroy the very system that installed him. He is that Star Wars character who kills Han Solo who is his father. Hegemony is the biggest motive.
China is telling the whole world “Look who’s starting it”. Next time US aircraft carriers conduct a war game near Taiwan, the neutrals will not just consider the issue of “sovereignty”, but also TikTok, the insane tariffs and America’s obsession with being in front of China in every aspect.
Next time America voices concern about its nationals being taken into custody in Thailand for violating Article 112, Washington will be asked “How about the countless number of people all over the planet who have lost their jobs because of you?”.
When people see ridiculous prices of the iPhone, they will think of America in a bad way.
North Korea will say “Look who has been taunting us for being strictly in our shells and not giving a **** about the outside world.”
Maybe the one-bullet-gun-in-your-hand scenario is not for the faint hearts. Let’s make it easier. If Donald Trump and Xi Jinping are the only presidential runners and you have a ballot in your hand, who will you mark it for?
A tough choice, isn’t it?
