Noah Feldman — China's the Reason U.S. Needs Trade Pact

House Democrats who’ve been interfering with President Barack Obama’s ability to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership are missing something very important: The trade deal isn’t primarily significant because of the economy. It matters because it’s part of the broader American geostrategic goal of containing China -- which pointedly hasn’t been invited to join the TPP. In the new cool war, China’s rising economic influence is giving it greater geopolitical power in Asia. The TPP is, above all, an effort to push back on China’s powerful trade relationships to reduce its political clout. By weakening Obama’s ability to pursue it, congressional Democrats are unintentionally weakening the U.S. side in the cool war.

It’s easy to miss the geopolitical importance of the TPP, because in the cool war, economics and politics sometimes appear to be operating in unrelated spheres...

Feldman makes it clear that the TPP is not about free trade but restricting trade. US Asian allies are now trading more with China that the US. That has to change.

Of course, this has been the hidden agenda and President Obama even hinted at it. US global hegemony is at stake.

Feldman just connects the dots for those that haven't figured it out, whom is says are the Democrats standing in the way of it. I wonder who provided the talking points.

But in fact, the TPP was conceived as a crucial tool in the next stage of the cool war. China has been expanding its security position within Asia, growing its military budget at more than 10 percent a year and staking claims to islands both real and imaginary or newly constructed...

The TPP aims to reduce some of China’s geopolitical resurgence by damping down the extent of China’s regional trade dominance....

There it is in black and white. The TPP is about restricting trade.

Yet the overarching goal for the U.S. in the cool war is and must continue to be a form of containment. For reasons of prudence and caution, the U.S. never says officially that it aims to contain China. But that’s the whole point of our military presence in the region. Yes, we’re protecting our allies from being dominated by China -- but we’re doing so by functioning as the dominant regional military actor.

China’s economic growth is a fait accompli. In general, it’s a great thing, bringing hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. But the U.S. needs a range of tools beyond the military to contain China. A trade deal that excludes China is a good way to do it....

Shh. Don't tell the Chinese.

And there is even a sweetener for Democrats.

And progressives in principle should like this approach. After all, one reason China can’t join the TPP is that it isn’t about to allow labor unions or other progressive institutions that the TPP requires of its members. Indeed, the TPP has been designed precisely to include free or at least freer countries than China -- and to encourage greater freedom in others, like Vietnam.

Got that?

Plenty more comedy at Bloomberg View. I get almost as many laughs there as at Zero Hedge.

This is not a laughing matter though. It is the heavy artillery of propaganda.

Bloomberg View
China's the Reason U.S. Needs Trade Pact
Noah Feldman