Opinion: President Trump and the U.S. Will Win the China Trade War

U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping after a joint press conference at the Great Hall of the People, Thursday, Nov. 9, 2017, in Beijing. Trump is on a five-country trip through Asia traveling to Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

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President Trump along with his Bosses the American People are in the process of winning the trade war with China. Here is the latest indicator from Market Watch which writes

China announced Thursday it will cut tariffs on $75 billion of U.S. imports by half, starting next week.

In a statement, China’s Ministry of Finance said 10% tariffs on some U.S. goods would be cut to 5%, while other goods that have faced 5% levies will have those cut to 2.5%, starting at 1:01 p.m. Feb. 14, Beijing time.

The article also notes that some of the goods tariff’s are being reduced on, can be used to help China with its battle against the coronavirus.

Read: China to cut tariffs in half on $75 billion of U.S. goods

Members in good standing of the anti-Trump resistance will of course glom onto the coronavirus outbreak in order to deflect any possible credit being adhered to The President. They have it exactly backwards. The Chinese are most probably using the virus outbreak as an excuse to lower these tariffs in order to save face.

A short time ago, I did a number of analysis pieces regarding the China trade issue, one of which centered around an interview with a U.S. CEO who had decided to escape the Chinese regulatory and tariff burden to establish his supply chain elsewhere. In the final piece of that not-quite-a-series I wrote

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I’m not sure that Xi is aware of just how bad. At this point, there is no way for China to win here. As I pointed out in that other piece, once U.S. businesses sign contracts, move to new locales and most importantly, retool and upgrade to latest technology, they will be very averse to going back to a proven hostile environment using out of date technology. The only decision Xi should be making is, how much pain is he willing to inflict on the real decision makers who allow him to remain in power? The longer he waits, the more painful this will be.

Read: The Emergency Economic Powers Act Gives President Trump A Lot Of Leeway

Although I had not committed this thought to print…yet, I believe that this latest move by China is the prelude to complete surrender on the trade issue. As I noted above and in several other pieces, it can only get worse for Xi as this drags out. Up until now, their strategy appeared to be, “Wait and see the results of the Impeachment, failing that, the election.”

Well ladies and gents, the U.S. economy is roaring. We have been at or above statistically full employment for months now. Our Labor Force Participation Rate is inching up. Wages for the bottom 50 percent are rising at the fastest in decades. The only hope for the Chinese leadership, was for President Trump to be removed from office or fail of reelection.

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It looks like President XI needs to come up with a Plan “C” to present to his political masters. The impeachment fiasco has been won by President Trump and the Democrats are fleeing the battlefield in disarray. As for the election? From my foxhole, President Trump appears to be headed for a huge electoral victory in November. He has a growing list of accomplishments only partially enumerated during the last State of the Union Address. The Democrats? Their only position is to offer free stuff and badmouth The President.

Making things worse for them, is that they have been publicly shown to be venal and corrupt people. Moreover, they are also incompetent. They are so inept, that they failed to successfully rig their own caucus in Iowa, where they controlled the process from top to bottom. As I write this, the numbers are still in doubt.

President XI and the rest of the leadership see all of this. They are a lot of things. But they are not stupid. They just have a radically different value set than we do. At this point, XI, et al have got to believe that President Trump is going to win in November—and win big. They also have to believe that the economic impact of the trade barriers, an unstable Hong Kong on the verge of outright revolt, coupled with a national health emergency that shows all the signs of becoming a pandemic, mean that they have absolutely no ability to “gut this out” until 2025. They have to deal with President Donald J. Trump for the foreseeable future. These tariff adjustments under cover of medical necessity, are just a recognition of that fact.

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Some Additional Reading

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