Understand the World
Aftermath of Messi’s absence from Hong Kong Friendlies
Published
11 months agoon

On the evening of 7 February, Miami International and Kobe Victory FC played an exhibition match in Tokyo, Japan, with the much-anticipated appearance of the world’s top football star, the Argentinean god Messi, on the sidelines. The match against the Hong Kong All Stars on 4 February was the only one of the six performance matches on the tour in which Messi was absent from the Miami International team. The controversy is still festering.
Messi in China: “Cold feet”?
The popular Argentinean footballer did not play in the pre-season friendly match in Hong Kong on the 4th of this month for Miami International, leading to dissatisfaction from the sold-out crowd of 40,000 spectators. Messi claimed on 7 February that he was unable to play in Hong Kong due to a groin injury, but that night Messi, who was supposed to be a substitute, played 30 minutes in the friendly match between Japan and Kobe Victory Ship, causing a huge upset among fans and officials in China.
On the 30th day of the Lunar New Year, 9 February, the Sports Bureau of Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, China, announced that, “for reasons that are well known” (how can you say that?), the Argentina national team’s trip to China had been cancelled. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, 10 February, the Beijing Football Association (BFA) announced that there were no plans to hold any matches in which the Argentine national team would participate. Earlier this year, the Argentine national team announced that it would play two warm-up matches in March in Beijing and Hangzhou, which would be important matches in the team’s preparation for the 2024 Copa America. Now, the plans for these two matches have basically gone out the window. This means that Messi’s matches in China have been cancelled, and the Chinese brands that Messi’s endorses will have a hard time gaining support for their brands by releasing the his image. Some commentators have said that his game is “over” in China.
But how much of an impact have these actions actually had on Messi?
What kind of player is Messi?
Messi, 36, was born in Argentina, of Catalan and Italian descent, and began his professional career in Argentina. As a teenager, he showed his talent by joining his local club Grandoli Juniors at the age of four, coached by his father, and moved to Spain at the age of thirteen to play for Barcelona Juniors in La Liga, where he played from 2005 to 2021, when he moved to Paris Saint-Germain, and then to the United States of America, where Messi signed for Miami in July 2023 to play in the North American League. In 2005, Messi became a Spanish national, but has continued to play for the Argentine national team.
As of August 2023, Messi has won 44 club and national championships in his career, making him the most decorated footballer of all time, with 35 coming from Barcelona, three from Paris Saint-Germain, and one from Miami International. At the international level, he has won five championships for Argentina, the U-20s and the U-23s.
His impressive record has earned him the honour of being the greatest player of all time. According to Forbes, he has amassed a net worth of more than US$620 million during his professional football career and earns an annual income of US$131 million, making him the highest-paid athlete in the world. His earnings from sports account for US$75 million, while other earnings, such as advertisements for big brands such as adidas, Ritz chips or PepsiCo, are also significant, amounting to US$55 million. He plays for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain, where he earns a staggering US$43 million a year, or US$827,000 a week, or US$8,790 an hour.
Messi had a difficult childhood and was born with congenital dwarfism and was supported by Barcelona FC to complete his development. As well as spending on luxury homes, hotels and private jets, Messi is also a generous giver of his own fortune, having partnered with UNICEF in 2007 to set up a foundation that aims to help disadvantaged children around the world. In 2017, he donated money to help build classrooms for 1,600 war orphans in Syria, saying in a statement, “Every time I see a child smile, hopeful, and full of joy, I am inspired. This legendary and caring footballer has made him a popular footballer, with nearly 500 million followers on his IG, and commercial messages worth tens of millions of dollars.
For such a rich and well-paid player, even without the sponsorship of a Chinese brand, the impact on him would be negligible. But is he the only one to be blamed for Messi not playing in Hong Kong?
The Western media, when reporting on the incident, had a very different view from the Chinese netizens.
Is it a case of the Hong Kong government pumping water on the cheap?
But there is a different voice in the criticism: the organisers signed a contract with MIAMI for the team competition, but not with Messi’s personal team. The contract is apparently a “cheap, non-compulsory Messi playing contract” that allows players to refuse to play if they are unwell, injured or medically unfit to play. Moreover, rumour has it that the contract amount was less than the HK$30 million offered by Miami International, which resulted in the player not being subject to the mandatory breach of contract, and thus Messi did not play. Contrary to Hong Kong’s actions, Miami International signed a high-priced compulsory attendance contract for their friendly match with Japanese professional team Kobe Satsushika on the 7th of July, so Messi had to play in the last half hour of the match, despite his leg injury.
It has also been revealed that the Hong Kong government’s previous claim that it had “cancelled” the visit of the USMNT team to the river cruise and the Kai Tak Stadium, which opened this year, was in fact due to the fact that the Hong Kong side had offered a price of HK$1 million for the participation of the USMNT team’s stars including USMNT and Uruguayan star Luis Suarez, which was not agreed upon in the end. There was a public outcry when the news broke. The price of an Instagram post by Messi alone would have been US$2.6 million, but to ask for the whole team for HK$1 million is a fool’s errand. The Saudi Arabian government invited Messi as a tourist ambassador for HK$200 million, but only asked him to participate in a few events. I believe it is only the wishful thinking of the Hong Kong government or the organisers that Messi should come to Hong Kong to play football with PR activities attached.
The incident was escalated to the level of “interference from outside forces”.
The official media of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has been criticizing the Messi incident in a high profile. In an article published by the Global Times on 7 February, the official media of the Communist Party of China (CPC) pointed out that the absence of Messi from the Hong Kong event could not be ruled out as a “political motivation”, and that “Hong Kong intends to build up an event economy, and there are external forces deliberately trying to use this as a means to embarrass Hong Kong”. In addition, Global People, a magazine of People’s Daily, published an article entitled “Messi’s’ Boss Linked to CIA” on 8th February, in which it was alleged that the boss of the Miami International team was linked to the US CIA. While it is understandable to be dissatisfied with Messi, it may not be wise to escalate the incident to international political criticism.
A number of Hong Kong Legislative Councillors “on behalf of” Hong Kong people have voiced their discontent with Messi on the Internet, including Fok Kai-kong, who wrote a 1,000-word article criticizing International Miami’s performance in Japan as “rubbing salt into the wounds of Hong Kong fans”; Councillor Edmond Ho Kwan-yiu, who has also repeatedly posted an article, with a photo of the draft of the 23rd Article of the Basic Law, criticizing Messi for “insulting the Chinese Government”, and who intentionally took a detour to avoid Chief Executive Eric Li Ka-chiu at the award presentation ceremony at the Hong Kong Stadium, “obviously insulting the HKSAR Government at the expense of the Chief Executive”. He also threatened that “it is not a gentleman who does not take revenge”. Regina Ip, who is also the Convenor of the Executive Council, even posted a message in English on social media platform X on the night of the Hong Kong Showdown, saying outright that “Hong Kong people hate Messi, Miami International and the masterminds behind the show because they have treated Hong Kong coldly and calculatedly”, and even pointed out that Messi should not be allowed to come to Hong Kong again. All of a sudden, all kinds of verbal and written criticisms have been escalating.
However, as an international city, Hong Kong’s repeated public speeches by government officials in the face of such a world-renowned footballer as Messi have clearly made the world look down on Hong Kong’s governing team. What is supposed to be a private commercial dispute has gone out of its way to expose the incompetence and ignorance of the governors.
As Beijing has elevated this storm to the level of political and international struggle, the organisers are forced to adopt a crisis public relations approach in order to maximise their losses. Currently, the organisers, Asian “Shangliu”, have announced a half refund to those who bought tickets through official channels and apologised again for the incident. It is not yet clear whether the refund will offset the anger of the fans in Hong Kong and mainland China. After all, the official behaviour has been elevated to the level of an ideology, and the organisers have emphasised that the absence of Messi was due to an injury, so it’s a case of the public talking to the public and the public talking to the private sector. Perhaps a refund to the fans is just the first step, and it is expected that it will take a concerted effort from the business community to reach a settlement that satisfies all parties, and we cannot rule out the possibility that compensation will eventually be required to settle the matter once and for all.
“Hong Kong is not what it used to be
The people and government of Hong Kong welcomed the team and the star of the show, Messi, with open arms. Miami International’s pink and black decorations and the team’s large promotional posters could be seen everywhere, and local newspapers devoted a lot of space to Messi’s visit to Hong Kong for several days in a row. However, just one day later, on 4 February, the joy dissipated and the atmosphere took a sharp turn for the worse – Messi didn’t even come off the field for one minute to play football in Hong Kong, with no smiles and no interaction, and as the captain of the team, he even stuck his pockets in his pockets to go around Hong Kong’s Chief Executive, Mr. Lee Ka Chiu, and others, and didn’t accept the award at the award presentation ceremony. It must be said that the fragile self-esteem of countless “patriots” and “pinkies” was deeply stung.
Time has changed and circumstances have changed. The fact that Miami International’s visit to China has turned from a good thing to a bad thing reflects the fact that Hong Kong is no longer in the limelight and is not valued by the people. All of this is related to the deformed political ecology of Hong Kong after the implementation of the national security law – red lines everywhere, pan-political operations, arrests day after day, even the pro-establishment Members have complained one after another about “whether it is possible to return to normalcy and not to put national security first”, but unfortunately, in return, the Chief Executive refuted it, and even upgraded it to a “soft confrontation with ulterior motives”. The programme of putting national security before everything else is causing Hong Kong to go downhill, failing to attract foreign investment, and naturally the economy will not pick up. However, Beijing and Hong Kong are still singing the same tune of “perfecting governance, emerging from governance, and restoring Hong Kong to normalcy”, which is Beijing’s political bottom line and also the slogan that Hong Kong’s Chief Executive has to abide by. There is a huge gap between the government and the people: the people know clearly that there is no such thing as restoration of normalcy, and there is no such thing as governance for the betterment of Hong Kong, but the government is still saying that Hong Kong is better than before. The failure of Messi to take the field at this point in time was undoubtedly a blow to the Hong Kong government.
In particular, the festering controversy a week or so after the match has made the international community feel ashamed. The fact that a sporting event, which should have been a contractual showpiece, has been turned into a fierce criticism of Miami International and Messi, will only lead to more foreign investment, foreign businessmen, and what Beijing calls “external forces” to bypass Hong Kong. After all, the world is a big place and you don’t have to go to Hong Kong or China. In the foreseeable future, the question may no longer be whether they will come to Hong Kong to “play the big game”, but whether they can be hired.
Author/Editorial Sameway
Photo/Internet
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Features
U.S. Tax Policy Reversals: The Future of Cross-Border E-Commerce is Uncertain
Published
20 hours agoon
February 17, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump signed a presidential executive order on February 1 that imposed additional tariffs on goods imported from Mexico, Canada, and China, specifying that small-dollar imports of less than 800 U.S. dollars would also be included in the scope of the tax. The move is believed to target Chinese e-commerce companies such as Temu and Shein, which have taken advantage of the duty-free policy on small-value imports to rapidly expand their share of the U.S. market. The latest news is that Trump has signed another executive order temporarily freezing tariffs on low-cost packages from China so that specific arrangements can be made. The White House did not specify how long the administration plans to delay the tariffs.
Fast Fashion Brand SHEIN Dominates Overseas Markets with Low Prices
Chinese e-commerce is pervasive
Temu has been expanding overseas since September 2020, and ECDB (e-commerce database) figures show an exponential increase in web traffic and app downloads in May 2023 compared to April. Not only Temu, but also Shein, Aliexpress, and JD have taken their domestic competition to the global market, creating a wave of Chinese e-commerce platform shopping around the world. In the midst of the Russian-Ukrainian war and the inflationary impact of the new Covid-19 pandemic in Europe and the United States, low-cost products have become more attractive to European and American consumers, and have even relieved them of their tight wallets.
In the U.S., Temu bills itself as a 2022 Boston-based, Delaware-registered business that ships products directly from manufacturers and suppliers. According to industry analysis, Temu’s primary operator is its Chinese parent company, Pinduoduo, which was founded in Guangdong in 2019. Leveraging Pinduoduo’s experience in grabbing the market with low prices in China, Temu has not only rapidly built up its user base in Europe and the U.S. through extensive advertising and referrals from friends, but has even attracted consumers who boycotted Amazon because they thought it was a monopoly e-commerce company. On the other hand, Shein is a cross-border B2C Internet enterprise focusing on women’s fast fashion, which was founded in October 2008 with the goal of “enjoying the beauty of fashion for everyone”. Shein’s business focuses on women’s fast fashion, and it has entered major markets such as North America, Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and South America, and directly serves consumers in more than 150 countries around the world, with an APP that covers more than 50 languages globally, and owns 11 private labels. 2020, during the outbreak of the New Crown epidemic, the apparel industry was hit hard, and Zara announced that its revenue had been cut by half in February-April, and it decided to close 1,200 stores. Zara announced that its revenues would be almost halved from February to April and decided to close 1,200 stores. At the same time, Shein’s sales exceeded $40 billion in the first half of 2020, and with a total valuation of more than $15 billion in E-round financing, it has become the apparel brand that is most likely to challenge Zara’s leading position.
One of the secrets of these e-commerce companies’ “pie in the sky” approach to overseas markets is their ability to understand and take advantage of local laws. The costs of cross-border e-commerce include marketing, customer acquisition, cost of goods, and transportation. Currently, Temu and Shein are taking advantage of the Universal Postal Agreement to utilize free parcel post and tariff exemptions to significantly reduce costs. In the U.S., for example, if the value of imported goods is less than $800, duty-free measures apply (the De Minimis rule); the De Minimis rule has been used by Temu, Shein, and other Chinese low-cost e-commerce companies that have been growing rapidly in the U.S. and elsewhere in recent years. These companies deliver goods directly from Chinese factories and warehouses to U.S. consumers through air transportation and other means, realizing non-taxable sales and thus suppressing prices. Compared with U.S. e-commerce companies such as Amazon, which have built warehouses and logistics networks within the U.S., Chinese e-commerce companies have stronger price competitiveness. Trump’s latest tariff policy has changed the status quo.
Building warehouses in the U.S., in addition to increased customs declaration fees and tariffs, but also additional transportation costs, and inventory and management logistics costs, it is clear that operating costs will increase significantly.
Seeking survival in the midst of uncertainty
Trump’s policy is a bit like the wolf coming to the rescue. Today he says he will levy taxes, but tomorrow he says he will not do so for the time being. Just when the media are clamoring that cross-border e-commerce overnight, the U.S. tariff policy has changed again – Trump signed an executive order that will continue to allow low-cost product parcels from China to enter the U.S. tariff-free for the time being. The U.S. will continue to provide “de minimis” tariff exemptions for goods from China until the Department of Commerce “establishes adequate systems to fully and expeditiously process and collect tariff revenues”. This change is a win for Chinese e-commerce platforms such as Temu and Shein, which ship directly to the U.S. and are very popular with cost-conscious shoppers, and a relief for U.S.-based consumers, who face higher costs on retail goods shipped from China.
According to statistics, approximately 4 million small-dollar packages valued at less than $800 are shipped from China to the U.S. every day. While this may not be a “big deal” in the huge volume of U.S.-China economic and trade transactions, the pain of eliminating the small-dollar exemption could easily and quickly be transmitted to the nerve endings of U.S. society, given that most of these packages consist of items that American citizens and businesses need on a daily basis, such as low-priced apparel, toys, and electronics, as well as production necessities such as screws and valves, and so on. Perhaps this immediate impact on people’s livelihoods is the main reason behind the policy’s hasty braking.
Nevertheless, Chinese cross-border e-commerce companies such as Temu and Shein are still trembling in fear of Trump’s unpredictable style of governance. In the future, in the face of unpredictable tariff policy changes, cross-border e-commerce large enterprises will choose to enter local warehouses to reduce tariffs, but a group of cross-border e-commerce ordinary sellers are complaining that because of the lack of ability to large-volume warehousing, it will be even more affected in the future. In particular, if the United States takes the lead, will Europe and Japan follow suit? There is a trend in the European Union to remove the exemption for goods under 150 euros, and Japan has a tax-free policy for parcels under 1,000 yen in value. If the whole world adjusts the tax exemption policy for small parcels, the future days of ordinary cross-border e-commerce sellers in China will definitely not be as good as before. In response to the uncertainty of U.S. trade policy, Shein and Temu have opened distribution centers in the U.S. that allow sellers to ship their goods to the U.S. and store them in local warehouses, from which they are shipped to U.S. consumers. As they have become the largest and most monopolized supply platforms, these changes will of course drive up the price of goods, but in the absence of strong competition, it is believed that these companies are still quite capable of facing new challengers.
Who pays the price?
With the slogan “Shop like a Billionaire”, Temu is using an extremely low pricing strategy that is killing it in overseas markets. Against the backdrop of shipping overseas, Temu sells sneakers for RMB 45, glasses for RMB 13, sunglasses for RMB 8, cell phone holders for RMB 9, drones for RMB 110, and handheld vacuum cleaners for RMB 40, which is an unbelievably low price. In fact, this comes from the plight of China’s foreign trade since 2022: due to the dynamic zero and “de-risking” of China’s foreign trade suffered a super-expected decline, domestic enterprises have a large amount of inventory backlog. This backlog of inventory is better than rotting in warehouses, no matter how low the price is, as long as the payback cycle is fast. This, coupled with high inflationary pressures in Western societies after 2023, has led to a huge increase in consumer demand for cheaper goods. Against this backdrop, Temu has become the world’s second largest e-commerce company after Amazon, and behind its glittering results are dealers who are crying out for help. Shein, the same fast-fashion brand as Temu, also offers ridiculously cheap clothing. In this supply chain, a large number of laborers working in textile factories in Panyu, Guangzhou, are being squeezed – companies are squeezing social justice and the rule of law to keep costs down, and leaving all the costs to suppliers and employees.
The emergence of this phenomenon was very similar to the oppression of workers’ rights by capitalists after the Industrial Revolution. Workers migrated from the countryside to the cities, leaving the land that provided the basic living conditions, and had to rely on their labor to earn a living, without the ability to bargain with the capitalists. Eventually, social instability evolved over a long period of time, resulting in a slight improvement for workers in developed countries through the enactment of labor protection legislation by the government. Cross-border e-commerce like Temu and Shein, where the benefits go to the company and the costs are passed on to the suppliers and workers, is very unlikely to happen in developed countries. However, the same cannot be said for populous countries such as China or India.
Product Quality and Intellectual Property
Consumers may order from these Chinese e-commerce platforms to save money, but product quality is a growing concern in many countries. In addition, counterfeiting is another issue that has been cited as a major market disruptor for low-cost products in China – the protection of anonymity and low thresholds for use on the internet have made e-commerce platforms the best place to sell counterfeits, and Shein’s history of plagiarism is legion, with international brands such as Ralph Lauren, Levi’s, and Zara, as well as Chinese Taobao, being some of the best sellers. Shein has a history of copying everything from international brands such as Ralph Lauren, Levi’s, and Zara to popular clothing on Taobao in China, and has even been accused by the Mexican Ministry of Culture of directly copying the workmanship and patterns of the traditional Mexican embroidery, Huipil. In the face of these lawsuits, Shein seems to be unaffected by the controversy, claiming that the infringing goods were designed independently by the merchants, and that the liability and compensation are borne by the merchants, not by Shein, and that Shein’s huge profits are shared by the entire community.
Personal data becomes a commodity
What’s more, the security of personal data is a matter of great concern. Not many people are aware that when a person makes a purchase on an online platform or uses a service (such as enjoying a TikTok video or one of China’s most popular dramas), the user not only receives the service, but also becomes part of the collective data collected by the platform. These data can be used to analyze various human behaviors, and to know and predict their activities and reactions in other areas. The platforms can also use the feedback to change the services they provide to the users or the products they recommend, thus controlling the users to stay on the platforms. Therefore, if these cross-border e-commerce companies become significant suppliers of shopping to people in other countries, it can be argued that they also become a way for China to influence other countries.
For example, Temu collects more information than is necessary for online shopping, including personal biometrics (such as fingerprints) and other data. The difference between China and the West in terms of data ownership is that the West uses data through accountability systems, but Chinese companies and governments are very vague about how they will use consumer data, and you don’t know how the data you leave behind will be used.
Conclusion
Temu and Shein are two cross-border platforms that have long been under the scrutiny of Western governments due to their “over-success” in penetrating Western societies and their enormous potential to influence society. Plus, they have long been criticized for labor exploitation in their supply chains, prompting investigations into their ethical sourcing practices. Ironically, while countries like Europe and the United States are pointing fingers and blaming China for its human rights situation, their people are consuming and enjoying products produced by forced labor and low wages; especially at a time of rampant inflation, consumers in the Western world will “vote with their feet” and make their own choices whether to boycott or to comply.
Trump’s order to cancel the tariff exemption for small packages today has attracted global attention as to how much it will affect these companies, and whether it will lead to a new direction of development in the globalization of cross-border e-commerce, so let’s wait and see.
Article/Editorial Department Sameway Magazine
Photo/Internet

Dictators Elected by Democracy
Before and after World War I, countries around the world that had been governed by authoritarian empires moved towards becoming constitutional monarchies or democratic republics, recognizing that the power to govern came from the people and was returned to the people in the form of democracy. The Czar of Russia, the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, and the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire all disappeared from history. However, more than a hundred years later, in the name of democracy, there are still a lot of dictators in the world who rule their countries according to their own personal preferences, and also influence the peace and development of the world under the banner of national security or hegemony. Hitler and Mussolini, who led to the Second World War, were both national leaders elected by the people of their countries on a one-person-one-vote basis. It can be said that people can democratically elect dictators and rule them with totalitarian power.
Today, after Trump’s strong governance of the United States from 2017 to 2020, he has become the president of the United States again, and it seems that he has used the power given to him by the Americans without any reservation, both at home and abroad, and he has shown his true colours of a great dictator.
Given Trump’s ambition and temperament, he would like to be a “dictator”, and he is envious of those powerful political figures in the world who are in control of their power and who are not subject to any rule, but it is a pity that America’s “democratic system”, “separation of powers”, and “historical tradition” have made it difficult for him to fulfill his ambitions. However, he always wants to try to break through the barriers and have a good time. For example, a few days ago, Trump claimed that he planned to allow the US to “take over” and “own” Gaza and resettle its residents in the process. Instead of being silenced by the outcry, Trump once again said he was “committed to buying and owning Gaza” and said he might hand over parts of the territory to other countries in the Middle East to rebuild. No matter how absurd Trump’s statements are, they still have repercussions and political consequences because Trump is the President of the United States – the most powerful man in the world.
There is no doubt that the U.S. Constitution gives the President enormous power to make executive orders to govern the internal affairs of the United States. But the use of these executive orders also allows the US president to exert great influence over the rest of the world. Trump’s claims before his inauguration that he would “take back” the Panama Canal in order to protect the security of the United States, that he would “buy” Greenland from a disagreeing Denmark, or that he would demand or “invite” Canada to become the 51st state of the United States by way of tariffs, have surprised the world, and Trump’s mindset seems to be that he has the power to rule over any country in the world.
Trump’s latest astonishing statement is that the century-old endless dispute between Israel and the Palestinians in the Middle East over land sovereignty can be permanently resolved by the US “taking over and rebuilding” the crumbling Gaza Strip, which he is convinced the Palestinians want. Such fantasies emphasize Trump’s inner egotist.
/Trump’s Comprehensive Victory and Return
Potential for more chaos
In recent days, the international community has criticized President Donald Trump’s recent comments that the U.S. would “take over” the Gaza Strip, and has objected to the relocation of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to other countries. Hamas (Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement) called his remarks “absurd and reflective of his profound ignorance of Palestine and the region”; and its Politburo member Izzat Rashek condemned Trump’s remarks about “buying and owning” the Gaza Strip, stating that the Gaza Strip is “not real estate to be bought and sold” but is an integral part of Palestine, and that it is not appropriate to deal with the Gaza Strip with the mentality of a real estate developer, but with the mentality of an American real estate developer, who has been in charge of the Gaza Strip. It is an integral part of Palestine, and approaching it with a real estate developer’s mentality will only lead to failure.
Many Palestinians in Gaza might consider leaving if given the chance, but even if a million left, as many as 1.2 million would remain. Obviously, the United States – the new owner of what Trump has called “the Riviera of the Middle East” – will have to use force to expel them. This idea is also expected to cause a backlash within the US after its disastrous intervention in Iraq in 2003. Moreover, it would put an end to any lingering hope for a two-state solution. That hope is that the century-long conflict could end with the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. In the past, Israel’s Netanyahu government was adamantly opposed to this idea, and over the years of failed peace negotiations, “two states for two peoples” became an empty slogan.
One high-level Arab source even told the media that in the short term, Trump’s surprise announcement could weaken Gaza’s fragile ceasefire. This is because the lack of a plan for the future governance of Gaza has become a fault line in the agreement. Many Palestinians already believe that Israel is using its war on Hamas to destroy Gaza and expel its inhabitants. This is part of their charge that Israel is committing genocide – and now that Trump has offered a plan, they may think that Trump is adding bullets to Israel’s plan. Undoubtedly, Trump’s plan creates enormous uncertainty, injecting more instability into one of the world’s most volatile regions.
A Major Shock to the International Order
Unlike traditional dictators, today’s dictators usually rise in democratic political environments. The United States is not naturally immune to dictators. During World War II, dictatorship was fashionable among the American elite. Eleanor Roosevelt once suggested to her husband that the country might need a “benevolent dictator” to lead it out of the Great Depression. This was not quelled until after Pearl Harbor. Robert Kagan, who has served as a foreign policy adviser to a number of Republicans, has written for the Washington Post that there is a clear path to dictatorship in the United States, and that path is getting shorter every day. Given Trump’s intuition, past behavior, and control of the Republican Party, his second term in office is barely a month old and has already shown the world that he is further weakening democracy.
By proposing to ‘own’ the Gaza Strip and carry out so-called ‘redevelopment’ after ‘permanently’ relocating the Palestinians, Trump has once again demonstrated his alarming global hegemonic stance. Behind this statement is not only indifference to the fate of the people of Gaza and further oppression of the Palestinian people, but also a new manifestation of U.S. global hegemony and a naked challenge to the international order and regional stability. Trump’s use of US power to establish an “American-style” order on Palestinian land will undoubtedly exacerbate the already complicated political situation in the Middle East, and will further demonstrate his ambitions.
The Gaza Strip is a scenic area on the Mediterranean coast, and Trump apparently believes that if he can move its inhabitants out, he can rebuild the region to America’s advantage. The point is not whether the idea is feasible, but that Trump’s America, as the world’s current superpower, thinks so and wants to incorporate into the United States any place that is profitable, be it Canada, Greenland, Gaza, or Panama. The United Nations has been gradually weakened over the last two decades and if Trump moves forward in this manner, there will be nothing left but an empty shell in this period. The same fate may befall international law and treaties as a human legacy.
Trump Announces Plan to Take Over Gaza, Shocking the International Community
The Long fight between Democracy and Dictatorship
Democracy, which gives power to the people, aligns the interests of the rulers and the ruled, and brings freedom, justice and equality, is considered by many to be a political panacea. Many people believe that democracy is a political panacea. Regrettably, ever since the birth of democracy, there have been endless doubts about it, the most typical one being “Hitler was also elected by the German people one vote at a time”. Democracy is by no means indestructible. The defeat of democracy in the ancient Greek city-state of Athens by the authoritarian regime of Sparta notwithstanding, the third wave of democratization has seen a return to authoritarianism. Some important countries have seen the emergence of powerful political figures with authoritarian overtones in their democracies. Apart from Vladimir Putin, there are also the likes of Modi in India, Erdogan in Turkey, and Orban in Hungary, who have been re-elected several times and practiced authoritarian rule internally. Some other countries have simply staged coups to overthrow their elected governments and practiced military dictatorship, such as Myanmar. In recent years, in developed countries such as Europe, a number of far-right regimes have come to power.
Since the Obama years, the two-party politics in the United States have gradually become polarized and torn internally. In the four years of Trump and Biden, this phenomenon has become more and more obvious, and has gradually become an extreme confrontation, and the dysfunction and disorder of the American democracy has worsened. The New York Review of Books has published an article pointing out that the United States is already a “nation of two”, with the Republican Party and the Democratic Party leading two sharply opposed national groups, each forming a federal government, and the United States of America has become a “divided nation of the United States of America”.
Due opposition is, of course, part of a democratic system of government, and only in this way can the ruling party be checked and balanced. However, opposition for the sake of opposition often paralyzes government operations and prevents effective policy agendas from moving forward. This is the dilemma of American democracy today, and it is also the common dilemma of human beings who have yet to find a viable path in the development of civilization. Donald Trump has once again won the presidential election, and the Republican Party is still dominant in the House of Representatives and the Senate. With no congressional constraints and no pressure to be re-elected, Trump has undoubtedly created a perfect opportunity for his “one voice”.
In the evolution of human civilization, “democracy” is relatively the least bad system, and history has also shown us that “democracy” can also elect “dictatorial” leaders, and has brought about global disasters in history, as in the case of Germany, where the Nazi Party was elected as the ruling party by popular vote. In recent years, from the UK’s referendum to leave the European Union, to the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States, to the rise of the far-right in Germany after the election ……, the biggest crisis in the world today may not be the financial crisis or global warming, but rather the hearts and minds of the people – the world’s growing desperation for the seemingly unsustainable model of capitalism, and with it, their loss of faith in the “voting” system of democracy. After all, the effectiveness of democracy is based on its ability to work. After all, the effectiveness of democracy is based on the rationality of the electorate, but the absurdity is that expecting the electorate to vote on the basis of their rational decisions is a near-impossible task. Now we have come to a fork in the road – the hard-earned foundations of America’s founding fathers may prevent Trump from turning the United States into a dictatorship, but with Trump’s consistent disregard for the norms of democracy, it is undeniable that America’s democracy will be jeopardized, and the world will become a much more dangerous place. Probably the only lesson mankind has learned from history is that it is impossible to learn any lessons from history.
Article/Editorial Department, Sameway Magazine
Photo/Internet

On January 20, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States. In his inaugural address, he promised to usher in a new “golden age” for the United States, a speech that was both promising and contradictory, highlighting some of the opportunities and challenges that the new president will face in his second term. A series of executive orders were signed immediately after the inauguration. After Trump’s return to power, he led a team with a detailed implementation strategy and an aggressive agenda. His own rhetoric remains as unpredictable as ever, and may represent a new policy or just a temporary distraction. The second Trump era has truly begun.
Trump lays out his vision for a new ‘golden age’
Trump opened his 30-minute speech with the statement “America’s Golden Age is about to begin,” declaring that the administration’s top priority is to create a “proud, prosperous, and free nation. From political reform, economic policy, national security, foreign strategy to social culture, Trump’s inaugural speech outlined a more radical MAGA vision, emphasizing the “restoration of U.S. sovereignty” and the strengthening of the “authority of the executive”. At the center of the new “Golden Age” vision may be a leaner and tougher government, which not only marks the return of Trump’s MAGA political agenda, but also signals a major shift in the direction of U.S. policy.
Since taking office, Trump has issued a series of executive orders. Overall, the executive orders continue Trump’s previous campaign policy ideas. They dealt with immigration, environmental, and diversity initiatives, and kicked off his presidency with a strong use of power, signaling that he was about to make a dramatic reversal of existing policies. The series of executive actions were designed to roll back many of President Biden’s most important domestic policies, primarily in the areas of climate and immigration, as well as to reintroduce Trump’s agenda, which would kick-start drilling and mining for natural resources and fundamentally upend the U.S.’s global role as a refuge for refugees and immigrants.
It is worth noting that on his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order announcing that the U.S. is once again withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord, reaffirming the current administration’s “America First” policy. The move will see the largest carbon emitter in history pull out of global efforts to combat climate change for the second time in less than a decade. The Paris Agreement was signed in 2015, in which governments agreed to limit global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels in order to avoid the worst effects of climate change. This decision by the Trump administration will leave the U.S. as one of the few non-signatories to the Paris Agreement in the world, along with countries like Iran, Libya, and Yemen. In addition to withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, Trump has also announced that he is withdrawing again from the WHO, a statement that has significant implications for the organization.
WHO will lose arguably its most important member and by far its largest donor. The U.S. has given $1.284 billion to the WHO between 2022 and 2023, hundreds of millions more than Germany, the second largest donor, and the WHO holds an annual general meeting every five years to discuss the important agenda, member country contributions, and membership applications. Trump has already expressed his displeasure at the fact that the U.S., with a smaller population than China, is responsible for more than twice as much funding. However, more than 80% of WHO’s funding comes from voluntary donations from member countries and charitable organizations. The U.S. is indeed the largest contributor in this area, while China’s contributions are so low that Trump thinks the U.S. is being cheated. It is also true that China and developing countries have often joined forces to promote the WHO’s agenda without taking US interests into account in many of its decisions, which makes assessing the WHO’s “benefits” to the US in terms of “influence” a poor calculation. However, the original purpose of the WHO is to take care of the needs of small countries, is it not the responsibility of big countries to do so? It is only that today China has become a “powerful country”, and has been able to offer all kinds of benefits to the developing countries in the WHO to gain their support, which has led to Trump’s dissatisfaction with the WHO today.
Looking ahead to the next four years, the two withdrawals are likely to be just a prelude, and Trump is likely to withdraw from organizations such as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UN Relief and Works Agency) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), etc. After all, Trump has the experience of the past four years, and his withdrawal from the group will be more targeted. At the same time, the international organizations in which the U.S. has little interest even if it does not withdraw from them for the time being will probably “switch”, i.e., shift their center of gravity to another group, so that the so-called big group will be hollowed out.
Opportunity for China’s “rise” to the top
The new U.S. administration has reiterated its intention to build a prosperous economy with “America First”, and the contours of the “New Economics 2.0” have emerged. For Trump’s old rival China, from the time he officially won the election to his inauguration, he has been making intensive use of the previous 3-month transition period to cope with the situation. Since the end of September and the beginning of October last year, China has been launching a series of policies to expand domestic demand and stimulate the economy, as well as allowing the Renminbi to depreciate sharply to stabilize trade and stockpile gold. In addition, China is moving closer to and improving relations with Japan, and is no longer at loggerheads with India and Australia. It is clear that Beijing’s strategy is to get closer to the three members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue between the US, Japan, India and Australia. But from a strategic perspective, these countries will not suddenly fall into the Chinese camp with the arrival of Donald Trump, and their alliance is unlikely to be weakened.
The newly appointed U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, even held his first call with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), in a “direct ball game” on Friday, emphasizing that the U.S. has “serious concerns” about China’s coercive actions against Taiwan, while Wang stressed China’s principled stance on Taiwan and asked the U.S. side to “deal with it with caution”. Obviously, this is the first step in the U.S.-China exchange, where both sides are exploring each other’s bottom line and drawing out each other’s red lines first. The reality is that despite Taiwan President Lai Ching-te’s recent trip, which included a visit to the U.S., the situation in the Taiwan Strait has calmed down a bit compared to the past.
As Trump announces plans to withdraw from various international organizations and agreements, China, on the other hand, may gradually position itself as a global leader and seize the opportunity to fill the void left by the United States on the world stage. Trump’s “withdrawal” puts into question the future of global public health responses and climate goals, but also leaves a leadership vacuum that China may try to fill. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized their continued alliance in a video call hours after Trump’s inauguration. Meanwhile, Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang emphasized China’s commitment to tackling climate change at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday, saying that “China has always been a staunch supporter of genuine multilateralism”.
China cut import tariffs on hundreds of goods this month as Trump threatened to impose higher tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico, among others. Regardless of the motivation, other countries may be strengthening their ties with China while the US is distancing itself. After all, U.S. isolationism means that other countries will have to choose between alliances with the U.S. or some multi-polar option – which could include the BRICS countries, of which China and Russia are both members. The role of the United States and China in the international community over the next four years is not yet clear.
Domestic and Diplomatic Tensions
On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order imposing a 25% tariff on Canada and Mexico, had a heated discussion with the Danish Prime Minister about Greenland’s sovereignty, and immediately threatened the President of Colombia over the deportation of illegal immigrants, etc., which shows that the US, along with other countries, will be forced by Trump to pursue a domestic policy that Trump believes is necessary to make the US strong again, and which will inevitably bring about conflicts in the US’s relations with other countries. Trump has also made it clear that he does not take these diplomatic relations seriously, and I believe that this will soon bring about a drastic and rapid change in global political and economic cooperation.
It is safe to say that the world will soon be in a position to reposition itself.
Avoiding a full-blown global conflict
As Trump promised during his campaign, if he wins the election, he will not send Americans to fight abroad and will do his utmost to avoid the outbreak of World War III. In the early days of his presidency, Trump has issued a series of executive decrees to overthrow his predecessor on the domestic front, and he has also been vocal on the diplomatic front.
A few days ago, Trump has issued a warning that he will impose high tariffs and further sanctions on Russia if Vladimir Putin does not end the war in Ukraine. He wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, that by pushing for a resolution to the war he was doing Russia and its president a ‘very big favor’. Trump has previously said he would reach a solution to the issue of a full-scale invasion by Russia in February 2022 within a day. Russia has not yet responded to those comments, but recently senior Russian officials said there was little chance Moscow would deal with the new U.S. administration. Trump has also hinted that he is prepared to join forces with China to end Russia’s war on Ukraine as a way to increase pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate a truce. Weeks before Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the two leaders declared that there was no ceiling on Sino-Russian friendship, with China serving as Moscow’s diplomatic and economic lifeline in the wake of sweeping sanctions against Russia imposed by the United States and its allies.
On Israel’s Gaza war, which has been going on for more than a year, Trump described the Gaza Strip as a “demolition site” after Israel’s war with Hamas. He said he was considering proposing a ‘Gaza clean-up plan’, calling on Egypt and Jordan to take in Palestinians from Gaza and allow Palestinians to ‘live a quiet life’ in order to realize peace in the Middle East. But the proposal has been rejected by Hamas, the Palestinian militant organization that controls the Gaza Strip. Israel denies any plans to force Gazans to move, but some far-right members of the Israeli government openly support a mass exodus of Gazans from Palestinian territory. A week ago, a ceasefire agreement was reached, which led to the release of some Israeli hostages by Hamas in exchange for Israel’s release of imprisoned Palestinian prisoners.
As a result of Trump’s isolationist approach, attitudes towards American power and its global role have changed: The United States is no longer seen as a global defender of its values and as a defender of the liberal international order. The fact that Trump did not mention allies or friends in his inaugural speech shows that he still prioritizes domestic affairs. He has made it clear on several occasions that he wants Europe to spend more on defense, and the threat of tariffs adds more uncertainty to the transatlantic relationship, but it could also be an impetus for positive change. Over the next four years, perhaps the United States will join other powers in a multipolar world, each taking responsibility for its own interests and seeking to build new relationships in a more transactional world for long-term peace and development.
Editorial Department, Sameway Magazine
Photo/Internet
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