Letters | China and the US could learn from fable of clam and snipe

Readers discuss the US-China relationship, water buffaloes in Lantau, and the recent travel chaos at the Lok Ma Chau MTR station

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The bilateral relationship began to fray in recent years and we are now at a point where complete decoupling is not unimaginable. Photo: DT

Published: 11:30am, 14 May 2025Updated: 9:22am, 15 May 2025

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As the dust over US President Donald Trump’s tariffs settles, we may be able to see more clearly his intentions: completely dismantling the existing trading system with one of his own design.

The focal point is trade relations with China. At the present moment, the tussle between China and the United States brings to mind the Chinese fable about the struggle between a clam and a snipe. The snipe tries to attack the clam, which traps the bird’s beak in its shells. Both creatures could survive a couple of days without water. But if their stalemate drags on, both would perish.

So too with the two superpowers: can they survive a couple of months of economic stalemate? What about three years?

Until this week when they agreed to reduce the tariffs, it had seemed that the 145 per cent tariffs Trump imposed on China this year, and the 125 per cent tariffs China imposed on the US in response were here to stay. This would have been akin to a total trade embargo.

The US imposed a trade embargo on China during the Korean war in the 1950s, which affected Hong Kong as well. The embargo was only lifted in the ’70s.