China’s Half-Century, One-Sided Trade War On The United States
A self-aggrandizement belied by the type of alleged policy makers that mostly populate the place. Oh – and they are alleged policy makers:
Congress Is Mostly Done Legislating for the Year
This article was published…on March 25. And Congress is done. The Republican majority seems to think their tax reform bill – and only their tax reform bill – is enough to get them through the November midterm elections.
I’ll remind these Elephants of their 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney – who won the first general election debate, and then tried to rest on those laurels for the rest of the campaign.
Instead of running the White House, Romney is now running for a layup Senate seat in Utah.
Meanwhile, winning Republican President Donald Trump just reached 50% in a popularity poll. A high-water-mark reached in no small part – because he’s repeatedly flogging Congress for not addressing our nation’s sieve-like borders and immigration laws.
All the while there’s an illegal alien caravan conga-line making its way through not-out-ally Mexico – towards our lawless Sanctuary State California. From which they can then, of course, invade the rest of our far-more-sane-than-the-Sunshine-State nation.
But Congress is mostly done legislating for the year. Because Congress is overflowing with geniuses.
These are the same Congressional geniuses who have consigned us to $21-trillion-and-counting in debt – and $205-trillion-and-counting in unfunded-government-program-debt squalor. Because they really understand economics. And cashflow. And math.
We regale with this tale – to then regale with another.
These very same Congressional geniuses – are very angry at Trump for emplacing tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. Tariffs aimed largely at Communist China.
Because these Congressional geniuses are for “free trade.” And really don’t like “Trump’s trade war.”
Except these Congressional geniuses – have zero idea what is actually going on. Or they do – and are being incredibly disingenuous about all of it.
Is Trump starting a trade war with the ChiComms? Not even a little. He is acknowledging the very obvious fact that China declared a trade war on us decades ago – and is having the US finally fire back.
China expert Gordon Chang knows this – and knew it back on March 10, 2016: “People say [Trump] would start a trade war. Well, no matter what The Donald does he can’t start a trade war because we’re already in a trade war with China. But only they are waging it. The question is how do we end it on terms not only advantageous to the United States but also to the international community.”
I steadfastly maintain that Republican President Richard Nixon’s far-and-away biggest error – was not the third-rate Watergate burglary executed in the midst of an election in which he won forty-nine states. (Without the break-in he’d have won…what, forty-three states?)
Nixon’s biggest error – was opening relations with the slithering snake pit that is Communist China. A titanically stupid move – executed in part, they claimed, to open up the closed Communist society. Supposedly, they told us, more trade with China – would mean more freedom for the Chinese.
And of course nigh all of DC’s Big-Business-donations-soaked geniuses – have spent the last half-century jumping on board this USS Nonsense.
Once again, these geniuses are either fantasists – or liars.
Anyone with an IQ above nine on a warm day knows Communists will never voluntarily relinquish power. In China, we’ve been for five decades simply funding – and thus propping up – their grotesquely fundamentalist and flawed regime. Our hundreds of billions of dollars per annum – allows the Communists to maintain their stranglehold on the Chinese people, rather than having led to its loosening.
If we’d engaged in this trade inanity with Communist Russia – the Soviet Union, the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall would all still be standing.
The world in 2001 joined us in our stupidity – and allowed China entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Communist godfather Vladimir Lenin sadly got one thing right: “The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.”
China has been tightening the noose for half-a-century. What follows are but some aspects of a 2010 government analysis of China’s total, totalitarian trade war against US:
“The 2010 National Trade Estimate (NTE) released on March 31 by the Office of the United States Trade Representative explains how the Chinese government kept out American products.
“Although the report ignored China’s currency manipulations, which raise the cost of all American goods and services in China by somewhere between 25-40%, it still found plenty to talk about.
“Currency exchange rate manipulation is only one of the many ways that the Chinese government keeps out American products. The report focused upon the Chinese government’s expert use of tariff and non-tariff barriers.
“Tariffs: The Chinese government imposes high tariffs upon many American products….
“Selective Use of VAT: According to the report, China makes selective use of its Value-Added Tax to keep out American (products)….
“Procurement Directives: The report points out that China makes use of procurement directives to keep out American (goods)….
“QIPs to Keep Out Agricultural Goods: The report points out that the Chinese government uses Quarantine Inspection Permits (QIPs) to keep out American agricultural products, causing costly delays while they sit on the docks….
“Restricting Market Access to Services: America has a wide variety of financial and insurance services that American companies could market in China, but the Chinese government simply restricts market access….
“Keeping out Genuine Materials while they are Pirated: American DVD movies and PC games are quite popular in China. However, American companies rarely get any sales. The report states:
“’An exacerbating factor contributing to China’s poor IPR protection has been China’s maintenance of restrictions on the right to import and distribute legitimate copyright-intensive products, such as theatrical films, DVDs, music, books, newspapers, and journals. These restrictions impose burdens on legitimate, IPR-protected goods and delay their introduction into the market.
“These burdens and delays faced by legitimate products create advantages for infringing products and help to ensure that those infringing products continue to dominate markets within China. (p. 71)’
“Demanding American R&D and Patents: The report briefly mentions China’s most recent escalation, its November requirement that American corporations move their R&D and patents to China:
“‘In order to qualify as “indigenous” innovation under the accreditation system, and therefore be entitled to procurement preferences, a product’s intellectual property must originally be registered in China. (p. 69)’
“In short, the United States government is letting the Chinese government practice mercantilism, the strategy of maximizing exports and minimizing imports. We freely receive Chinese imports without requiring reciprocity.”
Things since have mostly gotten worse.
And of course China’s noose-tightening there – tightens the noose here:
“U.S. companies that can’t compete with cheap Chinese goods must either lower their costs or go out of business. Many businesses reduce their costs by outsourcing jobs to China (and elsewhere) which adds to U.S. unemployment.
“Other industries have just dried up. U.S. manufacturing, as measured by the number of jobs, declined 34 percent between 1998 and 2010.
“As these industries declined, so has U.S. competitiveness in the global marketplace….
“China pegs its currency to the dollar using a modified fixed exchange rate. When the dollar loses value, China buys dollars through U.S. Treasuries to support it. In 2016, China began relaxing its peg. It wants market forces to have a greater impact on the yuan’s value. As a result, the dollar to yuan conversion has been more volatile since then. China’s influence on the dollar remains substantial.
“China must buy so many U.S. Treasury notes that it is the largest lender to the U.S. government….As of January 2018, the U.S. debt to China was $1.17 trillion. That’s 19 percent of the total public debt owned by foreign countries. Many are concerned that this gives China political leverage over U.S. fiscal policy.”
Communist China’s one-sided, all-out trade war against US – is what DC’s geniuses have for half-a-century bizarrely described as “free trade.”
And is the soul-crushing status quo they are defending – against Trump’s first, tiny steps towards trying to rectify this all-encompassing awfulness.
Because DC is overflowing with geniuses.
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Seton Motley is the President of Less Government and he contributes to ARRA News Service. Please feel free to follow him him on Twitter / Facebook.
Tags: Seton Motley, Less Government, China’s Half-Century, One-Sided Trade War, On The United States To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
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