The cost of Xi's plane ticket to the US
BRAmble Daily: 5 news items, 2 comments from me and 1 random musing, book or quote
5 news items
China Wants U.S. to Drop Tariffs on $360 Billion of Imports for Trade Deal
India Exits China-Backed Trade Deal 15 Nations Plan to Sign
Will China’s BRI include affordable space travel?
China, ASEAN experts attend think tank forum on Hainan
BRI to bring Qatar and Mideast closer to the world
2 Comments
All of a sudden Chinese President Xi Jinping is looking smarter than ever. Embattled U.S. President Donald Trump needs a favor to win an election and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi suddenly abandoned Japan and Southeast Asia by pulling out of a 16-nation regional trade agreement covering much of Asia. So this week, at least, Xi and China seem to have regained the upper hand in the global trade wars.
A trip by Xi to the U.S. for a signing ceremony would give likely give Trump the shot in the arm he needs ahead of next year’s election. According to insiders, it is clear that China has set a “price” for Xi to fly to the U.S. and sign a deal on agricultural purchases. At the CIIE in Shanghai, Xi made a pledge that the phase-one deal would lead to other measures to open China’s markets.
Insiders estimates vary but the price of Xi Jinping getting on the plane to the U.S., will likely require the roll back of U.S. tariffs on as much as $360 billion of Chinese imports.
1 Musing
My first real job in 1991 just out of University was running the Enterprise Sales Group at Microsoft Japan (Microsoft’s original office building in the Sasazuka suburb of Tokyo pictured above). In hindsight, having a mandate to sell the just-released Windows NT to Japanese corporates when “regular” Windows OS itself was not even a commercial success seems crazy. In those days none of my friends who weren’t PC geeks even knew what/who Microsoft even was. No wonder the three guys who did the job before I did were all fired in succession for lack of sales performance.
One of the really cool things I remember about those Microsoft days was that Microsoft had “flex time” and no one had to be in the office at any set hour of the day. 9 to 5 was just not a concept at Microsoft from the very beginning. People came in when they wanted and left when they wanted and some days they worked at home. When you came to the office was totally up to you and what meetings you had scheduled. In the buttoned-up, suit and tie wearing, business environment of early 1990’s Japan this concept was completely unheard of and was considered extremely strange. I remember my Japanese friends always asking me, “You don’t have 8 a.m. morning meetings and departmental radio calisthenics?” “Nope.” I used to respond, somewhat blithely. “We are an American software company. We don’t do that.”
China’s current 996 mentality of always working reminds me of the Japan of 20-30 years ago. But in Japan now it seems things are starting to come full circle. In August 2019 my alma mater Microsoft Japan did a one month experiment with a 4 day workweek. Apparently the results were absolutely phenominal. Sales per employee at Microsoft Japan rose 40% compared with August last year. Encouraged by the results, Microsoft Japan is planning to hold another trial again this winter. Despite all the negative news out there on the insane amount of time people spend working, hearing this I was truly inspired—and nostalgic. Flex time worked for Microsoft Japan way back then. Somehow working fewer days, being more productive and achieving better quality of life seems possible in our AI-powered future.
James