Trump has been a great president for China. For America, not so much.

Guno צְבִי

We fight, We win, Am Yisrael Chai
Don't buy Trump's tough act. Another term and he'd likely help Beijing rise to a position of global prominence from which it may never be dislodged.


And there exists one singular accomplice of the new Chinese wolf warriors: President Donald J. Trump.

Trump’s China policy has been a gold-leaf wrapped gift to Beijing, creating space for Xi to consolidate his power domestically and expand his influence abroad. And now, as Trump seeks to deflect attention from his catastrophic failure to lead a national response to COVID-19, he is cozying up to the China hawks. Trump is hoping no one will notice that he has been the best U.S. president for Chinese interests in our nation’s short history.


His disastrous China policy is, of course, centered on a bungling myopia. Trump cannot focus on any other China-related topic because of his naive pipe dream that he could persuade Xi to sign a comprehensive trade deal.

At the outset of talks, Trump strengthened Beijing’s hand by marching into a trade war alone, failing to rally a single European country to our side. This made it easy for Xi, who never had any intention of allowing Trump to force a meaningful change in China’s economic policy (especially the parts where Beijing subsidizes and controls industry, foreign products are excluded from China’s domestic market, and American intellectual property is stolen outright).

But Xi did manage to string Trump along while America lost 300,000 jobs and U.S. consumers paid millions in tariffs. More important, this focus gave China space to run circles around the United States in virtually every other forum outside the trade talks.


https://www.usatoday.com/story/opin...p-vacuum-for-china-to-fill-column/5191108002/
 
As the president desperately grasps for alternative targets to blame for COVID-19 in the United States, Trump’s political allies have given notice that China will increasingly be in their crosshairs. And of course, China does bear serious blame for its unconscionable obfuscation of the origins of the new coronavirus.

But if Trump’s case is that his reelection is required for America to effectively stand up to China, recent history makes clear the exact opposite is true. Four more years of Trump’s disastrous China policy will likely help vault Beijing into a position of global prominence from which it may never be dislodged. If Trump wants to make China policy a centerpiece of the coming campaign, his opponents should welcome it.
 
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