Beijing will “take off the gloves”

Reader question:

Please explain “take off the gloves” in this sentence: China has shown restraint in the face of provocations by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump over Taiwan, but if he continues after assuming office Beijing will “take off the gloves”.

My comments:

It means Beijing will begin to take Donald Trump seriously if he continues with provocations over Taiwan.

In the news, the American President-elect told Wall Street Journal (January 13, 2017) that the “One China” policy was up for negotiation. Previously, he had taken a congratulatory telephone call from Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, violating Sino-American protocol.

At issue is the fact there is only one China and that Taiwan is part of China.

This is not something to be negotiated on, not something negotiable at all. Trump, the businessman that he is, obviously thinks there’s another deal to make here – if China allows him to build one of those Trump hotels or golf courses, for example, then he will recognize America’s long-time One-China policy. He will deny it if he cannot make any gains from the issue personally.

Or something like that.

Anyways, China will have to begin to view Trump as a serious threat and act accordingly if Trump keeps at it after he takes office. Then China will “take off the gloves” and fight Trump for real – inflicting real hurt and pain if necessary.

“Take the gloves off” is an expression borrowed from the game of boxing. As we see, today’s boxers all wear thick chubby gloves which are intended as cushions in order to lessen the pain when a boxer receives punch to the head.

If a player takes the gloves off, then obviously he intends to inflict serious pain on the opponent. Now the playing for fun is over. He wants to really hurt his foe.

In short, when the gloves are off, somebody could seriously get hurt.

Seriously, though, nobody can take Trump seriously. The guy has said a lot of things to surprise all, what with building a wall against Mexicans, banning Muslims from entering the United States and so forth.

In the meantime, Trump has picked up verbal fights with many people, actress Meryl Streep included.

I mean, since what he says often defies belief, how can you know whether Trump means what he says, whatever he says?

All right, enough about Trump. Here are other media examples, all recent, of situations where people take off the gloves, usually figuratively speaking:

1. Donald Trump often notes that he has plenty of millions to battle his way to the Oval Office.

But now another billionaire New Yorker is putting up his own millions to prevent Trump from winning the presidency and is calling on Latinos to be part of that effort.

Financier George Soros is launching, along with other donors, a $15 million campaign to achieve the largest Latino and immigrant participation at the polls, the New York Times reported.

Through a new super PAC named Immigrant Voters Win, the campaign is funding organizations in states such as Florida, Nevada and Colorado, which have large or growing Latino and Asian communities, in the hope of influencing turnout in November, the Times reported.

Trump shot to the front of the Republican presidential field last year by proposing a hard-line immigration policy. The Hungarian-born Soros is contributing $5 million of his own money to the campaign.

People involved in the effort told the Times that it is the largest Democratic-voter turnout effort campaign to target Latinos and immigrants. The goal is to have a minimum of 400,000 new voters by the general election in November.

“This is really taking the gloves off,” said Cristóbal Alex, the president of the Latino Victory Project, which is part of the campaign.

“From the first day [Trump] attacked us, he called us rapists and thieves,” Alex told the Times. “We could have a giant wall built and millions of families broken apart. The country is on the precipice.”

- Billionaire George Soros funds $15M effort to stop Trump, mobilize Latinos, AFP, March 10, 2016.

2. A legendary Mexican drug cartel founder known for his own extreme personal tragedies is scheduled to soon be released from a U.S. prison. Jesus Hector Palma Salazar, nicknamed “El Guero Palma” or Blondie for his looks, is to be freed by June, according to the U.S Bureau of Prisons, as he has completed his sentence.

It remains to be seen what will come next for the former Sinaloa Cartel boss, as Mexico’s drug landscape has changed mightily since he was arrested 20 years ago.

Palma Salazar, 55, is expected to return to the crime group he launched a generation ago with the trafficker known as “El Chapo,” who was recently arrested in Mexico months after being interviewed by American actor and sometimes magazine writer Sean Penn. Palma Salazar has seen horrific tragedy.

A rival gangster, Rafael Clavel Moreno, once seduced his wife; got her to withdraw $7 million from a bank then decapitated her and sent Palma Salazar her head.

He also shoved Palma Salazar’s children to their deaths from a bridge in Venezuela.

“It devastated him,” recalled Mike Vigil, a retired chief of international operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration and author of the book “Deal.”

“After his kids were killed, he lost all of his morality,” Vigil said of Palma-Salazar.

“He took off the gloves,” Vigil said, contending that Palma Salazar shifted from the surgical use of violence to wholesale killing.

Clavel Moreno was later stabbed to death.

- Cartel godfather to be freed from U.S. prison, Chron.com, March 22, 2016.

3. Donald Trump took the gloves off as he went after Hillary Clinton during a speech he gave on Wednesday in Manhattan, while simultaneously making a play for disaffected Bernie Sanders supporters.

He accused her of possibly being the “most corrupt person to ever run for the presidency” and said she “perfected the politics of personal profit and theft.”

“She ran the State Department like her own personal hedge fund, doing favors for oppressive regimes, and many others, in exchange for cash,” he said at the Trump Soho hotel Wednesday morning.

“Hillary Clinton gave China millions of our best jobs and effectively let China completely rebuild itself,” he told his supporters . “In return, Hillary Clinton got rich. … She gets rich making you poor.”

- Trump dumps all over Hillary and tells Sanders fans to ‘feel the Donald’ in fiery speech, BizPacReview.com, June 22, 2016.

About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.