* Don’t be fooled: Trump’s record on China has been a string of historic failures. When it mattered most, Trump has folded to China’s leaders and the American people have paid the price.
* Nowhere is this more evident than in Trump’s feeble “phase one” trade agreement with Beijing. Long before anyone heard of COVID-19, Trump’s go-it-alone trade war was already taking its toll on the U.S. economy. Farm bankruptcies in the United States had risen by 20 percent and American manufacturing had plunged into recession.
* There’s a better alternative. We both saw first-hand Vice President Biden repeatedly stand up to China’s leaders and win…That’s what we’ll see again when Joe Biden is President. Biden will rally the free world and mobilize half the world’s economy to hold Beijing to account for its trade abuses. He’ll make major investments at home to bolster the American workforce.
PennLive: Trump has been weak on China, and Americans have paid the price | Opinion
By Jeffrey Prescott and Ely Ratner
September 19, 2020
At a recent campaign rally in Latrobe, President Trump mentioned China more than 30 times in a desperate attempt to convince Pennsylvania voters that he’s taken the “toughest ever action to stand up to China.”
Don’t be fooled: Trump’s record on China has been a string of historic failures. When it mattered most, Trump has folded to China’s leaders and the American people have paid the price.
Nowhere is this more evident than in Trump’s feeble “phase one” trade agreement with Beijing. Long before anyone heard of COVID-19, Trump’s go-it-alone trade war was already taking its toll on the U.S. economy. Farm bankruptcies in the United States had risen by 20 percent and American manufacturing had plunged into recession.
Rather than demanding Beijing stop its illegal and market-distorting practices, Trump caved for a deal replete with vague and recycled promises. There was nothing to curb the harmful subsidies that allowed China’s state-owned enterprises to compete unfairly against American workers. Nothing to stop China’s intellectual property theft of U.S. businesses and technology. The sole concession Beijing made—if you can call it that—was removing ownership caps for U.S. financial firms so American investors could continue fueling China’s economic growth.
The best Trump could show for his capitulation was a pledge from Beijing to make outsized purchases of American goods, which—from the start—leading analysts called “unrealistic at best.” These false promises have been laid bare by new Commerce Department data showing that China has fulfilled less than half of its commitments under the deal.
When Trump tried to reassure the American people in mid-August that Beijing was “more than living up to” its side of the bargain, fact checkers swooped in calling Trump’s deal “more bluster than boom” and noting that “Chinese purchases are far behind the target for 2020.” Even his own advisors have declared the deal “over.”
Yet the tragedy of Trump knuckling under to Beijing doesn’t end with him defrauding America’s workers and farmers. The added catastrophe is that Trump was so desperate to sign his trade deal in January that he abetted Beijing’s coronavirus cover up.
Rather than insisting U.S. experts find out what was happening in China, Trump praised the Chinese government for its “transparency” and reassured his supporters that, “I spoke with President Xi and they’re working very, very hard. And I think it’s going to all work out fine.” In fact, Trump lauded Xi Jinping’s “leadership” more than a dozen times as the virus began spreading across the United States. Even his much vaunted travel ban was found to be nothing but “porous restrictions.” Trump wanted his lousy trade deal so badly that he refused to stand up to Beijing. The rest is history with more than 185,000 Americans dead and the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression.
Now Trump is doing everything possible to hide his record on China. He’s claiming victory on his trade deal even though America’s farmers and manufacturers know the numbers aren’t adding up. He’s blaming China’s government for the coronavirus even though he put his faith in Xi Jinping and had Beijing’s back when it mattered most. He’s criticizing Joe Biden despite the former Vice President calling on Trump in the early stages of the pandemic to take the virus more seriously and insist on CDC access to China.
The American people will decide this November if they want another four years of Trump’s weak hand with Beijing. There’s a better alternative. We both saw first-hand Vice President Biden repeatedly stand up to China’s leaders and win. He defended America’s right to fly over the East China Sea when Beijing illegally declared an Air Defense Identification Zone. He stood firm for American journalists when Beijing tried to expel them. And he successfully demanded China’s government do more to stop its cyber theft of American business.
That’s what we’ll see again when Joe Biden is President. Biden will rally the free world and mobilize half the world’s economy to hold Beijing to account for its trade abuses. He’ll make major investments at home to bolster the American workforce and keep U.S. technology on the cutting edge. Under President Biden, America will once again lead by the power of our example. Where Trump has failed, Joe Biden who will position the United States to outcompete China for decades to come.
Jeffrey Prescott served as deputy national security advisor to Vice President Biden from 2013 to 2015. Ely Ratner served as deputy national security advisor to Vice President Biden from 2015 to 2017.
Read the piece here.
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