Legendary billionaire investor George Soros is warning of a possible World War III with China. No its not what you think. He is not concerned about recent military tensions in the South China Sea nor with the fate of Taiwan, but with economic issues between the world’s largest country and the West.
He also took a big personal financial risk by being harshly critical of China. Need we explain why that is so?
Will you offer us a hand? Every gift, regardless of size, fuels our future.
Your critical contribution enables us to maintain our independence from shareholders or wealthy owners, allowing us to keep up reporting without bias. It means we can continue to make Jewish Business News available to everyone.
You can support us for as little as $1 via PayPal at [email protected].
Thank you.
At the World Bank’s Bretton Woods Committee conference he said that both the U.s and China need to make concessions when it comes to China’s currency. It needs to become a convertible currency like the Dollar and the Euro, he believes.
“The United States would be making a major concession by allowing the renminbi to make a step forward in becoming a potential rival of the dollar, ” Soros said.
“So, China would have to make similarly major concessions and there are many things wrong with the Chinese system. The Chinese leadership doesn’t abide by the rule of law; there is no independent judiciary and the multinationals are very often mistreated.”
The West has been complaining about how China keeps its currency’s value artificially low for years. This makes Chinese exports cheap for the West to import and Western goods expensive for importation into Chinese markets.
If the Chinese currency were to become fully convertible then market forces will set its value.
He did comment, however, on the growing military tensions in the far east and the possibility that Russia may form a new block with the Chinese against America and the EU.
“If there is conflict between China and a military ally of the United States, like Japan, then it is not an exaggeration to say that we are on the threshold of a third world war, ” he said. Soros added that, “there is a real danger that China will align itself with Russia politically and militarily, and then the threat of third world war becomes real, so it is worth trying.”
See his whole speech here: