> Morgan Stanley economist: China is winning the Gulf War

Stephen Roach, former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia and senior fellow at Yale Law School, said the conflict in Iran has put China in a stronger position relative to the U.S.

As the Trump administration threatens to pull out of NATO and urges other nations to take oil from the Strait of Hormuz, Roach argues that America’s global standing is deteriorating while China benefits from its more measured approach.

In an interview with CNBC, Roach drew a stark contrast between the leadership styles of President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“You’ve got a disruptive president enacting personalized, whimsical policies that make no sense legally or strategically,” Roach said. “Xi Jinping represents a China that attempts to think strategically. They’ve done that for years, and I think the comparison between the two of them is day and night.”

Roach was particularly critical of the president’s recent public address on the conflict, describing it as a “nothing burger of a speech that really didn’t describe anything that you could call strategic.”

He noted that the address was “completely inconsistent” with the administration’s own national strategic strategy published months earlier.

On the question of responsibility for securing the Strait of Hormuz, Roach placed the burden squarely on the United States.

“The U.S. started the war, and the U.S. has responsibility for, I think, cleaning up the consequences of the war that it started,” he said.

By stepping back from those obligations, Roach argued, Trump is “walking away really with a classic defeat on his hands and trying to hold others accountable for it.”

Rather than acting aggressively, China appears content to watch from the sidelines. Roach said the Chinese are “just sitting back and watching the U.S. under Donald Trump continue to act in a manner that is not befitting its status in the world, and China almost wins by default here.”

https://seekingalpha.com/news/4572278-c … -economist