In the fake new world of mainstream media coverage of President Trump, NBC and their Trump-hating coterie of whining ambushers have done it again. They completely missed the point of President Trump’s trade spat with China.
So, how did we get from “Trade war with China could cost the average family $1,000 per year,” to “China’s agrees to negotiate a fairer trade deal as their economy falters under the pressure of President Trump’s push-back”?
The mainstream press left out the middle part about how the Chinese have been screwing the U.S. since 2001, and President Trump has been the only leader to do something about it.
China’s political and economic system is run by a totalitarian regime. They can do as they like and have done so for the past 18 years.
The U.S. trade deficit with China has ballooned to over $360 billion. The U.S. has lost 5 million manufacturing jobs. To capture an unfair market share, the Chinese party bosses do what it takes—including subsidizing exports and dumping products at below-market prices.
The Chinese have fixed prices, stolen trade secrets, and shipped products through third-party countries so buyers won’t know the company of origin. Chinese technology theft has included state-sponsored espionage and counterfeiting U.S. products.
Their other mean tricks include blocking U.S. company websites, censoring the internet, and revoking U.S. business licenses. The Chinese also manipulate their currency to make sure that their companies have a cost advantage against the U.S. dollar.
Undervaluation of currency is against all international trade rules, as well as U.S. law. But the U.S. Commerce Department has ignored that practice.
Yet, the mainstream press has characterized our President, who finally has had enough, as some petulant maverick on the world stage: “The sky and the Stock Market are falling! Your 401k’s are going to tank. Expect to pay 25 percent more for that kitchen utensil kit you buy in Target! It’s all President Trump’s fault!”
Nevertheless, at the recent G-7 summit, President Trump stood firm against his gutless critics who whined that his tough negotiating was causing problems in the financial markets. Said Trump, “Sorry—it’s the way I negotiate.” He assured reporters that his approach is seeing results.
Those results were that the Chinese caved yesterday to President Trump. The Chinese signaled that they were seeking a “calm” end to the trade war. Asian financial markets have recently crumbled, and China’s currency devaluation is backfiring and sinking to a 11-year low. In the diplomatic equivalent of suing for peace, the Chinese want to get back to the table.
Said President Trump, “China wants to make a deal.” President Trump’s deal won’t be 50-50, though. He told the Chinese leaders, “Look, you’re making $500 billion a year and stealing our intellectual property…We can’t make a 50-50 deal.”
If the Chinese can’t do better, the President won’t do business. He has already signaled his intention to raise tariffs ever further. He also threatened to declare a national emergency and freeze all business relationships with China. That announcement caused another temporary dip in the Stock Market, which is part of President Trump’s cost of doing business.
All this has been a 180-degree turnaround from previous administrations and their practices of appeasement. China became a member of the World Trade Organization back in 2001. Presidents Clinton and Bush predicted that the effect would be China’s abandonment of communism in favor of free-market capitalism.
None of those predictions worked out, however. China is still a communist dictatorship, which has adopted a few aspects of capitalism in order to trade on the world market.
However, Chinese “capitalism” is more a throwback to mercantilism—everything for the benefit of China—coupled with a robber-baron mentality. The Chinese have played by their own rules as previous U.S. administrations have stood by doing nothing.
As President Trump’s critics urged him to back off, he responded, “They (the critics) don’t have the guts, and they don’t have the wisdom to know you can’t continue to go on where a country is taking $500 billion—billion with a ‘B’—out every single year. Somebody had to do this. This should have been done by President Obama and Biden—Sleepy Joe—should have been done by Bush, by Clinton, double Bush, should have been done. I’m doing it.”
And when the deal is finally done, will the mainstream media see (let alone report) the wisdom of tough dealing with the Chinese communists? Probably not. Their headline will probably go something like this: “Trump backs down as Chinese convince him to negotiate and be calm. Dow Jones recovers, but there still could be a recession.”
