floridafan
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“China is winning Trump’s trade war,” ran the mocking headline atop Heather Long’s Sunday story in The Washington Post, which observed that Trump and his top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, had gotten no specific promises from the Chinese on reducing the trade deficit, prosecuting intellectual property theft (meaning the theft of patents and business secrets), limits on Chinese investment in the U.S. or much of anything else. If anything, the administration retreated on all fronts: Kudlow told reporters on Friday that Chinese negotiators had agreed to reduce the deficit by “at least” $200 billion, but the Chinese immediately denied it and the official statement released by the White House the next day mentioned no such number.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a onetime Trump primary opponent who is clearly trying to position himself as lead carrion bird of the post-Trump GOP, tweeted, “Why do U.S. officials always fall for China trickery?” (Which reads a lot like an actual Trump tweet, with superior literacy skills.) Former steel industry executive Dan DiMicco, who has tried to shore up Trump’s rearguard flank with the Bannonite “economic nationalism” crowd, tweeted plaintively, “Did president just blink?” (If you have to ask, Dan, you know the answer.
Things were no better to Trump’s left, where Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer — whose views on trade are largely Republican-lite — accused him of selling out “for a temporary purchase of goods.” Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, a pro-union Democrat who had largely held fire on the tariff policy, issued a statement saying that after “the tough-guy rhetoric, the administration is simply getting rolled on trade with China.”
Of course it’s no surprise that Chinese state media proclaimed this result a great victory, in which “China didn’t ‘fold’” to Trump’s so-called pressure but “stood firm,” in the words of a China Daily editorial. But I’m not aware of anyone, anywhere, in the Western press who seriously suggests that’s a misinterpretation.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a onetime Trump primary opponent who is clearly trying to position himself as lead carrion bird of the post-Trump GOP, tweeted, “Why do U.S. officials always fall for China trickery?” (Which reads a lot like an actual Trump tweet, with superior literacy skills.) Former steel industry executive Dan DiMicco, who has tried to shore up Trump’s rearguard flank with the Bannonite “economic nationalism” crowd, tweeted plaintively, “Did president just blink?” (If you have to ask, Dan, you know the answer.
Things were no better to Trump’s left, where Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer — whose views on trade are largely Republican-lite — accused him of selling out “for a temporary purchase of goods.” Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, a pro-union Democrat who had largely held fire on the tariff policy, issued a statement saying that after “the tough-guy rhetoric, the administration is simply getting rolled on trade with China.”
Of course it’s no surprise that Chinese state media proclaimed this result a great victory, in which “China didn’t ‘fold’” to Trump’s so-called pressure but “stood firm,” in the words of a China Daily editorial. But I’m not aware of anyone, anywhere, in the Western press who seriously suggests that’s a misinterpretation.
