“China will not only act as a Kung-fu master in response to US tricks, but also as an experienced boxer and can deliver a deadly punch,” Wei boasted to the South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong based newspaper.

China’s former vice-minister in the Ministry of Commerce, Wei Jian-guo, calls China a “Kung-fu master” with that can give America “a deadly punch”. Is that true?

But critics find this analogy or “threat” easier to laugh at than to feel frightened or to even ignore it. Wei’s statement is accurate, but not for the reasons he has in mind.

First, it’s not the era of Kung-fu and boxing, its the era of sophisticated military technology nuclear weapons. China can be a “Kung-fu master”  and “experienced boxer” all it wants, but America isn’t playing on that level. Chinese material arts is looks impressive but is old fashioned, while American weaponry and technology is constantly innovating. The Chinese of the past were smart enough to invent guns and rockets, but Chinese of the present can only modernize by stealing US technology.

Next, Wei said China can give “a deadly punch” to America. “A deadly punch”? Just one? Yes, he’s unintentionally correct. China already ran out of American goods to tariff in the trade war since the US had such a massive trade deficit to begin with. President Trump turned that weakness into strength as China quickly ran out of counter-tariffs. China already punched and ran out of punches.

Ironically, an famous ancient-Chinese military strategist named Sun Tzu wrote in The Art of War that the best way to win a war was the turn an enemy’s weakness against himself. Beijing certainly wasn’t expecting that irony.

Looks like Trump’s The Art of the Deal won after all.