Published on August 9, 2019. This article introduces a dialogue from the monthly magazine Hanada between former NHK Chairman Momii Katsuto and China expert Endo Homare. It discusses President Trump’s power of transformation, the U.S.–North Korea summits, the U.S.–China trade war, Huawei sanctions, China’s supply-chain strategy, and why Xi Jinping is now courting Japan.

2019-08-09
Having come under fierce attack from Mr. Trump, Mr. Xi Jinping is now casting amorous glances at Japan.
That is because he wants a large quantity of high-level semiconductors from Japan.
The following is from a dialogue between former NHK Chairman Momii Katsuto and Endo Homare, the world’s foremost scholar with deep knowledge of China, published in this month’s issue of the monthly magazine Hanada under the title “Trump’s Transformation and Xi Jinping’s Global Strategy.”
When I had no choice but to appear in this way in July 2010, I was also posting on FC2 in order to have as many people as possible read my work.
At that time, FC2 made it possible to know the affiliations of readers.
As soon as I appeared, day after day, top executives and professors from Japan’s leading major corporations, Kasumigaseki, the House of Representatives, and almost all national and public universities, beginning with the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University, as well as top private universities such as Waseda, Keio, Kwansei Gakuin, Kansai University, Doshisha, and Ritsumeikan, were reading my work every day.
That was only natural.
Because the core of this country, or rather the core of the world, consists of my seniors, classmates, and juniors.
Among them, the name of Nihon Unisys appeared frequently.
The two lifelong friends I have had since entering society work at trading companies that represent Japan.
There is competition even to get a job at a major company representing Japan, and competition continues after entering such a company.
Under such circumstances, no matter how extraordinary the content of “The Turntable of Civilization” may have been, there is no way that new employees or mid-career employees were reading it during working hours.
Then who was reading it?
Needless to say, the highest-ranking executives on the side that manages employees were reading what they thought important, as a source of ideas and as an occasion for judgment.
Through the following dialogue, I became convinced.
One of the people who was frequently reading my work at that time must have been Mr. Momii, who was then president of Nihon Unisys.
That is because the period when he was president overlapped with the time when I appeared.
To move things dramatically
Momii
This was when I was still chairman of NHK.
When President Trump was elected, overturning most predictions, I was asked at a press conference about Trump’s victory.
At that time, I said the following.
“President Reagan, too, was initially criticized as ‘after all, only a movie actor.’
But later, he became a highly regarded president.
There are people who speak contemptuously of Mr. Trump as ‘a real estate man,’ but after he leaves office, people will say that he was a good president too.”
When I watch television, Mr. Trump is still ridiculed with expressions such as “because he is a real estate man,” but what exactly is wrong with being a real estate man in the first place?
In short, is it not simply that people cannot understand and cannot tolerate words and actions that go beyond the framework of their own thinking?
Regarding the U.S.–North Korea summit as well, when the first meeting was held in Singapore, many opinions criticized it by saying things such as, “It will not succeed anyway.
It is rash.”
Endo
Actually, in Xi Jinping vs. Trump, which I published about a year before the Singapore meeting, and on other occasions when I made remarks, I predicted that a meeting would be possible with these leaders of the United States and North Korea.
But at the time, no one was thinking such a thing, so I was subjected to extremely fierce bashing.
Momii
It was probably only Professor Endo who predicted the U.S.–North Korea summit from an early stage.
After that, the second meeting was held in Hanoi, and the third recently at Panmunjom, and Mr. Trump is now finally saying that “working-level talks between the United States and North Korea will be held.”
In other words, they have made a start.
If it had not been President Trump, the U.S.–North Korea summit would never have been held.
To move things dramatically, sometimes the top leader must boldly carry things out, otherwise nothing will change.
Endo
That is exactly right.
It is precisely because Mr. Trump has that personality that this was realized, and under a step-by-step method prepared by bureaucrats, as in Mr. Obama’s time, such drastic things would not occur.
Momii
Sometimes transformation cannot be achieved unless it is carried out drastically.
The same is true in the world of business.
When I was president of Nihon Unisys, I also brought about bold reforms.
For example, in a thirty-story office building, there were large numbers of cabinets on every floor for storing documents, supplies, and so on.
When I asked, “What is in these? Are they really necessary?” the replies were vague and unconvincing.
So I had ninety percent of the cabinets thrown away and promoted paperless operations.
The employees were surprised and said, “What! Not ten percent?” but I carried it out, saying, “Nothing will be achieved with only ten percent,” and as a result, thanks also to the employees’ efforts, we eliminated them splendidly.
This made the company interior clean, and even freed up two floors.
We were able to use those efficiently, and above all, the awareness of “transformation” sprouted among the employees.
That is important.
A smoke-free workplace is now taken for granted, but at Nihon Unisys, all floors were made smoke-free more than ten years ago.
It was unusual at the time, but I carried it out boldly.
Perhaps I was able to be drastic because I was an outsider as a manager.
I received quite a lot of criticism, though.
Endo
Mr. Trump is also often criticized in the media.
Momii
From the perspective of “transformation,” I appreciate Mr. Trump.
In the U.S.–China trade war as well, he strongly insists that “this is unfair” and is fighting fiercely with China.
I do not think previous politicians could have gone this far.
After all, he is trying to bring about transformation by acting drastically.
Regarding the international organizations and systems that have relied on the United States, which was the only wealthy country after World War II, I think he is asking foreign countries to bear their appropriate share.
Easing embargo sanctions and Chinese wisdom
Endo
Having come under fierce attack from Mr. Trump, Mr. Xi Jinping is now casting amorous glances at Japan.
That is because he wants a large quantity of high-level semiconductors from Japan.
Furthermore, beneath this lies China’s weapon, the global economy, and it is indeed a strategy rooted in “Chinese wisdom.”
Unless one grasps this point, one cannot decipher Mr. Xi Jinping’s moves and strategy.
In the 1990s, I interviewed many overseas Chinese in the United States.
I cannot forget the words of one elderly overseas Chinese at that time.
“I am sick of war.
I dislike the Chinese Communist Party, but I do not want war.
For that reason, we must make sure that America cannot cut its business chain with China.
If that is done, America will not be able to start a war with China.
This is precisely Chinese wisdom.”
The Xi Jinping administration’s global strategy may also be called a kind of “wisdom” that China has accumulated since Sun Tzu’s Art of War.
Since the start of the U.S.–China trade friction, Mr. Xi Jinping has in fact often used the phrase, “You are in me, and I am in you.”
This refers to China’s strategy of forming a strong supply chain throughout the world, especially in the United States, so that when a conflict occurs, the other side cannot escape from the “entanglement of chains.”
In that sense, the global economy is China’s weapon.
Momii
From June 17 to 25, hearings on punitive tariffs against China were held in the U.S. Congress, and more than three hundred American companies participated.
The majority of them opposed embargo sanctions against Huawei.
After all, there must be a considerable number of people inside the United States who would be troubled by embargo sanctions.
In the first place, Wall Street cannot make money unless the economy is global, so it has consistently opposed protectionism.
Endo
That is a very important point.
At the recent G20, after the U.S.–China summit meeting, Mr. Trump postponed the fourth round of additional tariffs on China and announced an easing of the Huawei embargo sanctions, and behind that as well was Mr. Xi Jinping’s “Chinese wisdom” at work.
To explain concretely, at Tsinghua University, Mr. Xi’s alma mater, there is an Advisory Board of the School of Economics and Management, and the names of the bosses of America’s great financial conglomerates are lined up among its members.
Most of the CEOs of major American companies connected to China are members of this Advisory Board.
In other words, they are closely connected with Mr. Xi.
All of this was arranged by former Secretary of State Kissinger, but when China is finally driven into a corner, it only has to move these bosses.
In a sense, it is as if Wall Street itself is right under Mr. Xi’s feet.
It is extremely likely that the bosses on the Advisory Board put pressure on the more than three hundred companies that participated in the hearings this time.
In other words, Beijing was controlling the U.S. Congress beneath the surface.
Including this kind of influence, the American think tank National Endowment for Democracy has named it “sharp power” and issued warnings about it.
Momii
American business leaders value money above all else.
If they cannot do business with Huawei, a giant client, they are in trouble because they cannot make money.
If lobbyists provide the funds, even hearings can be held.
Endo
There are an enormous number of American companies doing business with Huawei, and the main appeal at the hearings was that cutting that supply chain would be fatal to American companies’ businesses.
Therefore, the overwhelming majority demanded that the embargo sanctions against Huawei be withdrawn.
Mr. Trump, who had been taking a strong stance for the sake of the next year’s presidential election, could not choose an option that would bring results disadvantageous to the election.
Aiming at the moment when Mr. Trump realized that the situation at these hearings was unfavorable to him, the Xi Jinping side delivered the final blow.
On June 26, when the conclusion of the hearings came out, Mr. Xi presented Mr. Trump with a final ultimatum: “Unless you lift the Huawei sanctions, I will not agree to a U.S.–China summit at the G20.”
This had been a condition Xi Jinping had set from the time of the June 18 telephone talks, but at this point Mr. Trump had no choice but to yield.
In other words, the lifting of the Huawei embargo was the precondition for holding the U.S.–China summit meeting.
Other than myself, the only outlet that scooped this was The Wall Street Journal on June 27.
This article continues.