Yesterday Today Tomorrow

Guest (Male): Yesterday, connecting past. Today, with an outer view. Tomorrow, to understand future. Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow is the program that covers the current contemporary social issues in the light of our history. To understand our yesterday, to live fully today and tomorrow. Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow with Inseong J Kim.

Inseong J Kim: Hello, this is Inseong J Kim from Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. This is the second program about balancing the economy. When we hear about tariffs and competition with China, we often think we are the bad guy and China is the good one. None of the mainstream media covers the history of this, so I am going to share today that America wants to diversify away from overreliance on China.

China took steps a long time ago to reduce its reliance on major US tech firms like Oracle. This tariff issue did not just happen in 2024. We are not the initiator of this decoupling; China already did it a long time ago with Oracle. Both countries are essentially acting on the same principle. No major economy wants to put all its eggs in someone else’s basket.

That is the connective tissue between the US supply chain conversation and China's moves to replace and phase out certain foreign technologies. America is diversifying its supply chain because US concerns are straightforward: too much dependence on a single foreign supplier, especially for critical goods, creates vulnerability. The goal isn't to cut China out but to avoid a scenario where a disruption in one country can freeze entire industries.

China felt the same way. They decided not to use Oracle because they worry about their national security, just as we do. COVID was a great example where we realized that we were too comfortable with each other and realized that would not always be the case. We decided to bring the industry back to our country and diversify.

We should not complain about that. It is not about who is doing what. At the end of the day, we all live in this land and we have to think about what is in our national security and the best interest of the people living here. A lot of things are happening that blindside us because the mainstream media is totally hijacked. They never share anything about what we have to be concerned with.

We have to open our eyes and care about the land where we are living. As I have been sharing, this is the second part of economic balance. I want to start with Oracle because we are not the only ones trying to decouple. China wanted to decouple from us by not using the technology we have been sharing.

Let’s study what happened in 2010 after the housing market crash. The housing market crashed because all the manufacturing jobs and factories were moved away from America. A lot of people did not have a job to pay their mortgage. We still do not know who benefited from it. In 2010, China rose as the world factory.

Between 2010 and 2015, it went so fast that we could not even catch up with what happened. In the meantime, we got a lot of cheap items from China, like Barbie dolls and toys. We were busy buying cheap items and gifting them to each other while China was rising as a world factory. US concerns over intellectual property theft and technology transfer were beginning to surface.

In 2010, China became a world factory producing everything from smartphones to solar panels. The US deficit hit record levels. In 2013, it was 318 billion. In 2014, it was 344 billion. It kept going up. In 2015, it was 367 billion, and in 2018, it was 418 billion. It kept going up because it accelerated.

We had to stop some of this acceleration and reverse this unbalanced economy. Concerns grew about intellectual property theft. Not only were manufacturers moving to China, but they were learning from whatever they were creating in China, copying it, and stealing it. They were creating their own. That is what happened with Oracle, too.

Oracle was used in all facets of the Chinese government, education, and all kinds of areas. Now they are slowly decoupling from Oracle and they have their own tech taking over. In 2018, the US imposed tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods. China retaliated and the trade war began.

We did not initiate it, but we have to adjust to these changes. Both China and America are not signing up for globalism. On the surface, it looks like we are not working together as one. We are moving our factories back here and diversifying. At the same time, China is trying to coerce other countries like Venezuela or those in South Asia for their benefit.

Chaos happens. How are we going to settle these issues? We have to step back and be balanced again. We all have to support the idea, rather than just watching and complaining. Truth is not always truth unless there is context. We have to dig out the truth of what our government does in the context of our national security and national interest.

This deficit is growing like a snowball and we have to hit the brakes. How can we stop this? Something that we have to think about is all of us participating as producers. As I have observed for over 20 years, the community is changing with more marijuana dispensaries and check-cashing places. Those kinds of businesses are growing and leading us to more poverty and debt.

That is the direction China is leading for all over the world: to make people get into debt they can never pay back and then they collateralize the assets. I think we are in the middle of it. Are we really waking up or not? Everyone has to think about it. The world realized how dependent it had become on China for everything from masks to microchips.

Every turn you take, from Home Depot and Walmart to Target and grocery stores, everything is coming from China. By moving production to Vietnam, Mexico, and India and diversifying, the US is investing in domestic manufacturing for semiconductors and clean energy. I have to verify more deeply, but I heard that TSMC is in mainland China, too, not just Taiwan.

We might have a war because of Taiwan, but that might not be the case. The deficit fell from 418 billion in 2018 to 279 billion in 2023. Luckily, the balance is coming down more. It is easy to think of the trade deficit as just a number or a statistic buried in a government report, but behind that number are real stories.

There are American workers whose factories closed in 2003 and families who could suddenly afford a flat-screen TV in 2008. There are small business owners who struggle to compete with cheaper imports and tech companies that relied on Chinese components to innovate. We have to think about the long term.

If it was cheap, that is one thing, but the problem is the price can go up. Then it is like Sissoo trees. If anyone understands Sissoo trees in Arizona, you know that if you plant them, they will grow. Some people are suing Scottsdale HOAs because they planted Sissoo trees that came from China.

The roots go under the foundation and eventually, they grow and lift the house, damaging the foundation. A deficit can do that. The price of the supply chain from China can go up and cause a devastating fundamental structure of the economy in America. For the future, where do we go from here?

With all the good intentions we had to do business together, we realized there were potential problems. Rather than going hostile toward each other, we have to step back and balance this economy. The next 40 years will not look like the last 40. America still has a lot of good advantages.

We must not lose sight and should bring back all the businesses here so American people can have more hope, more jobs, and more motivation to build this country together. I do not know how we can reduce the deficit more, but we have to come up with ideas to balance our economy. I do not think it is impossible. It is very possible when we really pay attention to how we can navigate these issues.

From the six billion in 1985 to nearly 300 billion today, the US-China trade deficit is one of the most dramatic economic transformations in modern history. What is happening in the Belt and Road Initiative is that it is easier to take over small countries because their scale is small. They borrow the money, build the infrastructure, and then become indebted to China.

This can reshape the industry, the community, and the world. It changes the culture of how we do things. As a free country, what we have been doing can be jeopardized. Control can be stronger. Every move we make, we have to worry about what we say and what we do. That is called a lack of freedom.

Its legacy will continue to shape the future for both nations. The US and China deficit reveals more than an economic issue. It reflects broader cultural and societal impacts, even shaping American identity. It is worth considering how we are changing. Anyone who is listening to our program can ask AI to provide deficit details by year since 1985 to confirm this.

Between the US and China, war is not the answer. How we navigate the crisis is the art of the deal. It takes sophisticated negotiation for win-win situations to balance it. We must decide what to give up and what to give each other rather than constant conflict that makes both countries suffer.

The main goal is to weigh the sacrifice and ensure sovereignty to respect each other as leading nations. Our national security and alliance must remain intact. In addition to implementing concrete numerical targets, we need accountable action. That is the key to actively reversing the deficit rather than merely managing it.

I do believe we have hope, but it depends on how many Americans actually engage in the policies. It is very difficult for us to find out the truth when the mainstream media doesn't tell us much about what is happening. Every single citizen of America should be motivated to do their own research and find out what is going on.

We must save this country, our community, and our family. The US Census Bureau trade in goods with China from 1985 to 2024 and all of that information is in front of us. It is not hidden. We all need to know and be aware of this cultural sense of economy. We must be participants and innovators to create jobs.

We do not have to stay dependent on the jobs already created. All younger generations should create a new, different kind of job that other countries cannot copy or steal. We do not have to depend on everything existing today. New innovation can always save this country with a low cost.

That is all it takes: brainstorming and not just sitting back and watching or only depending on what leaders do. Everybody has to participate in bringing this country back. As we know, both countries have been reliant on each other and finally, we are waking up. I want to revisit shortly how Oracle moved from being fully used in China to moving away from it.

The core concern of the US diversifying the supply chain is overdependence on China for physical goods. In China's case, reducing reliance on Oracle was about overdependence on US firms for digital infrastructure. The US strategic goal for diversifying the supply chain is resilience, redundancy, and domestic capacity.

China's strategic goal for reducing reliance on Oracle was sovereignty, security, and domestic tech growth. China is also heading toward that direction for their own sovereignty and security. The underlying logic for the US diversifying the supply chain is to avoid a single point of failure. One mistake in a bad relationship with China could make the whole country collapse.

China's case is also to avoid a single point of failure since they were heavily depending on Oracle tech. Both had to do what they had to do, but in the meantime, we are living in somewhat of a chaos. We all have to be participants in what is going on and do our own research.

Ask God what His plan or will is for the individual. God will open our eyes to see and guide us in all the different directions that He can help us. Thank you so much for listening to Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. Please share our program and be informed and educate each other. Thank you.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow with Inseong J Kim. You can also find more from Inseong J Kim at InseongKim.org. That's I-N-S-E-O-N-G-K-I-M dot O-R-G. Thank you for listening to the show.