President Trump said today that “China is dying to make a deal with me” and that it is up to him whether to accept or reject the deal. That flies in the face of all available evidence and completely contradicts his previous statement that China was going to delay any deal until after the 2020 American presidential elections.
At what point do we as a nation conclude that Trump is simply out of his depth? That he is creating chaos in one of the most important–and contentious–relationships that America has in the world?
I think the Chinese government strategy is to stretch out the negotiations. Don’t allow them to be cut off, but don’t give up anything. The Chinese are masters at this. They could do this for the next decade–or two or three.
One reason they are stretching out the negotiations is that there can be no deal, no end point. The Trump negotiators are asking them to do things they simply refuse to do, such as ending central government financial support for state-owned enterprises or changing Chinese laws to protect American Intellectual Property. If I were Chinese President Xi Jinping, I would be refusing to do the bidding of the foreign barbarians as well.
We have been in this Trumpian trade and tech war now for a year. And the Administration has nothing to show for it–except begging for the Chinese to resume buying American agricultural products.
What’s completely missing is a discussion about what Americans can start doing to rectify the deep-rooted issues of technology and geopolitical clout. Those are the things that really worry the smartest folks in the security, intelligence and military circles. The trade deficit is a side show.
First and foremost, as I argue in “The New Art of War: China’s Deep Strategy Inside the United States,” seen here, we have to get back in full control of our computer and telecommunications systems. We have been breached. And we need to stop the massive theft of Intellectual Property that the Chinese government is still conducting. FBI Director Chris Wray said last week that his agency is investigating 1,000 cases of IP theft in all 50 states, and most of the cases lead toward China. This is a national outrage. Yet his remarks were not carried in the national media.
The mentality of the Trump team is locked in another era, when the U.S. might be in position to dictate policy to a smaller power. China is arriving and the Americans have yet to begin a meaningful debate about how to respond.
