Can APEC solve San Francisco's Homeless Crisis

In recent days, with the convening of the APEC Economic Leaders' meeting, San Francisco has also become the focus of the world's attention. The APEC summit is the largest to be held in San Francisco since 1945, and San Francisco attaches great importance to hosting this event. In order to welcome visitors from all over the world, the city has changed its scruffy image and embarked on a massive environmental upgrading campaign. Homeless people and drug addicts have disappeared overnight, and the city has been transformed. The New York Times quipped that the air in San Francisco had the "atmosphere of teenagers frantically cleaning up a party before their parents got home."

"Clean the house before you treat" is a tradition in many places, but why did San Francisco's big clean up attract a "global audience"? San Francisco is a well-known port city on the west coast of the United States, and is also known as the "technology innovation capital" in the world. But for a long time in the past, the city made headlines every once in a while because of its dirty environment. Homeless people are on the streets, drug addicts are lying around, tents are scattered everywhere, and so on, not only the local residents are miserable, but also the foreign visitors "fear". The famous American entrepreneur Elon Musk once commented that "San Francisco city looks like a zombie apocalypse." Therefore, this big cleaning attracted US netizens to question, they think that the city management agency can also do to keep the city clean and safe, but in the past has not seen its actual action, but now because of the summit and quick action, which shows what?

On the surface, the San Francisco raid dealt a blow to the idealized image of the American dream and freedom, but in essence, it reflected the lack of government governance caused by the widening gap between the rich and the poor in American society and serious political polarization. As we all know, American society is extremely divided, the gap between the rich and the poor is huge, the rich live in beautiful clothes and beautiful houses, but the poor have no place to live, can only live on the street. The two are so distinct that they hardly intersect, and the squalor of the streets of San Francisco does not affect the rich much. And drugs and guns, in the eyes of the average person, are important tax sources even for the rich.

But this time, the APEC summit is not just a meeting of national leaders, but also a ministerial economic meeting, and the United States has a lot to gain from negotiating lower tariffs, breaking down trade barriers, and easing economic relations. Therefore, the United States has to pay attention to this issue, after all, the economic cooperation between the major countries brings much more benefits than the street homeless, in case the other side is not happy, not worth the loss? American politicians can figure that out.

The potential benefits of economic cooperation between countries are large enough for the US government to re-examine its internal affairs. It can be seen that the opportunities for international economic cooperation have forced the US government to make trade-offs between international and domestic policies, which has led to new policy changes. This change is not only reflected in diplomatic rhetoric, but has spread to every corner of domestic politics, including long-neglected street issues.

For the US government, the APEC summit is not only a stage to show national strength, but also a mirror to examine domestic affairs. In seeking the benefits of economic cooperation on the international stage, the U.S. government has been forced to seriously consider domestic social issues that have long been marginalized. In the face of external pressures and expectations, how the United States handles its domestic problems is not only related to its immediate political and economic interests, but also to the long-term health of society. If the United States can really realize the problem, while trying to solve the domestic and livelihood issues, lower its posture and carry out equal economic and trade cooperation with other countries, it is also a win-win situation.