Joe HonickJoe Honick

All the way back to the time of George Bush, I tried to warn about our clumsy handling of relations with China, as we continued to act as if we were tougher without understanding the sensitivities of those folks. 

The arrogance was multiplied as then candidate Donald Trump literally screamed that the Chinese were "raping our economy " and weren't going to get away with it in a Trumpian administration. 

Anyone who thinks that insult was simply seen as just campaign oratory by the world's most populated country needs a lot more education....as does the President of the United States who thought making "nice" to visiting Chinese President Xi made up for what Trump had roared on his way to the election.

And last October, I tried again to warn that we either ignored or minimized our attention to China at our own peril.

In between these pleas, I predicted a few years ago that a new economic triumvirate of Russia-China-Saudi Arabia was in the making.  Of course, that outlandish idea was quickly met with what I hoped was good natured skepticism, with laughter muted.

Well, that silly prediction has now become fact...and has emerged with hardly any media attention.  No surprise, when one considers the "meatier" scandals that are much better reading, and for some, much more fun.

Fairly muted over the past few months has been the deal making "tour" by the Saudi king and his 1,500 person "army" of princes, ministers and others, with the boss at the front and intent on making deals in Asia, something they accomplished with gusto that included one for $65 billion with China, forging two-thirds of the predicted tripartite development. 

Muted even more in the mainstream press has been the major agreement struck by the Russian aircraft manufacturer UAC with the Chinese venture COMAC to develop a major new passenger airliner that would compete with the Airbus products and would carry 280 passengers 7500 miles.  (Are you listening Boeing?)

Each of these deals carry the reality of long term partnership.

Our deals?  Selling tons of war stuff to the Saudis who seldom do their own defending when they have Uncle Sam to wage wars in the desert.  With China, a tidy deal negotiated between Trump and President Xi which made our POTUS think he had exerted the advertised "art" of his deal talents.

Missing in all of this circus of diplomatic manipulation is any discussion of the fact the emergence of China may well be the most dramatic event in economic history, as Financial Times chief columnist Edward Luce makes clear in his powerful new book "The Retreat of Western Liberalism,” which will be reviewed this website shortly.

So, while western arrogance and the President's poorly rehearsed tours of the Middle East and Europe have been going on, including insulting NATO partners and artless commentary about the leader of the Catholic church ("That Pope sure is something!”), China has been making valuable and important new alliances that have not gone unnoticed to anyone except apparently and certainly embarrassingly the scandal-weighted Trump administration.

And these realities are but like movie "trailers" to the emerging eventual "feature."

Stay tuned.

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Joseph J. Honick is an international consultant to business and government and writes for many publications.  He can be reached at [email protected]