It is ironic that the two largest democracies, India and the US, are also the biggest contributors to the trade surplus of the PRC that is helping Xi Jinping to mitigate the impact of a sluggish economy. The annual trade deficit of India with China is over $80 billion, and that of the US is on track to cross well over $500 billion. The actual figures may be even larger, for the CCP has become proficient in using Mexico and Canada to assemble parts made by Chinese entities and get the labels changed to “Made in Mexico” or “Made in Canada”. In the case of India, the same is being done by PRC companies based in ASEAN countries with whom India has signed FTAs. As had been warned in an earlier column, President Trump needs to be watchful of “friends” who in effect work for the objectives of the CCP. Elon Musk is not among them. Although there is worry in parts of the world that Elon Musk may be a Chinese asset in disguise, such a conclusion is false. Given the strong national security picks of the US President, it is scarcely likely that they would not have privately warned Trump about Musk, were such speculation about him were true. His purchase of Twitter and its conversion from a politically slanted, anti-Trump platform into a more neutral one was influential in ensuring that Trump got his message across and won the Presidential poll against Kamala Harris.
As for TikTok, should it be kept alive in the US, it should only be once its equity is owned by patriotic US citizens. The difference between the contents of TikTok and in its sister platform, Douyin, speak for themselves. TikTok almost subliminally promotes a dystopian view of democracy that gets reinforced by several manufactured messages that celebrate the “successes” of the PRC and the hypertrophy of the West in particular. Absent full US control over the platform, the ban on TikTok that has been upheld by the US Supreme Court in a unanimous verdict should stand. It would be a political disaster for Trump to allow Democrats to use the continuation of TikTok in the US with less than full US ownership to spread the narrative that while they may have been wrong about Trump being a Russian agent of influence, when he was actually a PRC agent. Again an absurdity, but which could gain traction within voters were TikTok to be allowed to continue without the most stringent of security protocols and full ownership by US citizens. As it is, its going dark some days ago is only leading to users switching to other platforms. Such a trend would continue, hence there would be no political loss to Trump were the ban on TikTok to continue. It bears repeating that there will be an all-out effort by the Democrats to get a majority in either the US House or Senate, or both, in the 2026 midterm polls, a point that should not be lost on Trump and his party. Tariffs that are increased step by step on PRC products would soon be replicated by other countries, very possibly including India. Tariffs are a vote getter, and will force the CCP to give larger and larger subsidies in order to ensure that its products compete in the US market. In the way Reagan succeeded in ruining the USSR by forcing Moscow to overinvest on defence, through tariffs, Trump is in a position to ensure that Beijing overspends itself into bankruptcy if not during his term, then the term of his chosen successor, J.D. Vance.