China
April 13, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton didn’t agree on much during the 2016 campaign, but they did agree that the U.S. should not participate in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). I read this as a sign that the U.S. should stay in the TPP. That’s not why I favored staying in, though. Nor was my opinion based on the virtues of free trade. It’s possible to be a free trader and still
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April 11, 2018 — John Hinderaker
Yesterday the financial markets soared in response to a speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping. Xi’s speech was conciliatory, and suggested that, far from igniting a trade war, President Trump’s proposed punitive tariffs have brought about important and positive changes in our economic relationship with China, including, among other things, lower tariffs on American automobiles and better protection for American intellectual property. Time will tell how this plays out, but
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April 6, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
According to President Trump, trade wars are easy to win. This may be true in some cases, but a trade war with China would be anything but easy. Steve says, based on sources close to Trump, that the president believes we can win a trade war with China because China needs the U.S. more than the U.S. needs China. Thus, the theory goes, the Chinese will blink first. Trump’s premise
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April 5, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
I wrote here and here about Confucius Institutes, the vehicle through which China wages ideological warfare on America’s campuses and even at our high schools. I explained: Since 2004, the Chinese government has planted “Institutes” that offer Chinese language and culture courses at colleges and universities around the world, including more than 100 in the United States. As the National Association of Scholars (NAS) documented in this report, the Confucius
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March 23, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, there were two developments on the trade front. First, the Trump administration said it will impose tariffs on $60 billion in Chinese goods and limit China’s ability to invest in the U.S. technology sector. Second, the administration issued a reprieve on steel and aluminum tariffs for some of our closest trading partners. As a supporter of free trade, I welcome the second development. But I also welcome the first.
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March 23, 2018 — Steven Hayward
A trade war with China? As it happens, I spent some time early in the week with Steve Moore of the Heritage Foundation, who has been close to Trump and who, along with Trump’s new senior economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, helped fashion the tax reform bill recently enacted. He has shared with me a couple of times in recent months his private conversations with Trump on economic issues. Steve said
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February 27, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Peter Beinart proclaims that “the Trump administration is preparing for a new Cold War.” Against whom? Against Russia and China. The left can’t seem to make up its mind. Is President Trump a tool of Putin or an anti-Russia cold warrior? I say he’s neither. Instead, I think Trump is slowly recognizing, as President Obama never seemed to, that Russia and China are waging a Cold War against us, and
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February 26, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
I wrote here about the Confucius Institutes, a mechanism through which the Chinese government fights its ideological battle on American campuses. The Institutes offer Chinese language and culture courses at more than 100 American colleges and universities, while avoiding mention of human rights abuses, portraying Taiwan and Tibet as undisputed territories of China, and doing their best to make sure American students know nothing more of China than the regime’s
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February 23, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Last night, I wrote about Taiwan and the growing Chinese threat. The threat I discussed was the military one. In the modern world, ideological warfare goes hand-in-hand with military threats. Thus, though few Americans know about it, we shouldn’t be surprised that China is waging ideological warfare on American college and university campuses. What’s surprising, perhaps, is the complicity of our colleges and universities. China fights its ideological battle on
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February 22, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
The New York Times reports that China has been ratcheting up pressure on Taiwan, the nation whose independent existence China aspires to end. In recent months, Chinese strategic bombers have been conducting “island encirclement” flights, escorted by fighter jets. The Chinese government has discouraged tourism to Taiwan and imports of goods like fish over the past year and a half, hurting its economy. And China persuaded the island’s most important
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November 14, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Three UCLA men’s basketball players arrested for shoplifting in China are on their way back to the United States after President Trump personally intervened in the case with China’s head of state, Xi Jinping. The three players — LiAngelo Ball (brother of Lonzo and son of LeVar), Jalen Hill and Cody Riley — were caught by video cameras stealing sunglasses from a Louis Vuitton store next to where the team
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September 22, 2017 — Scott Johnson
President Trump’s address to the General Assembly of the United Nations earlier this week appears to have been calculated in part to “unsettle China” sufficiently to clamp down on Rocket Man. I think it’s gonna be a long, long time, but maybe President Trump was on to something. At today’s Washington Times, Dave Boyer and S.A. Miller report: President Trump persuaded China to freeze all financial transactions with North Korea
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September 20, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post reports that President Trump’s statements to the U.N. about North Korea unsettled China and Russia. Trump said that “the United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.” China, through a state controlled newspaper, complained that Trump’s threat will “likely worsen the already volatile situation.” It called
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August 29, 2017 — Steven Hayward
Renewable energy, along with unicorn flop sweat, Al Gore’s organic gasses, and moonbeams always get the ink for the “future of energy.” And don’t forget how Tom Friedman and others like to remind us that China is going to overtake the U.S. as a “clean energy leader” because Trump dumped the Paris Climate Accord (thereby causing Hurricane Harvey in the process). Turns out if you look close you find out
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July 1, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Twenty years ago, Great Britain handed over Hong Kong, with its 6 million residents, to Red China. Keith Richburg of the Washington Post recalls the prevailing wisdom among Western reporters who covered the region at the time — acquiring Hong Kong would transform China: Beijing desperately wanted — needed — what Hong Kong had: wealth, stability, good relations with the world. What did Beijing have that Hong Kong wanted? Nothing.
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June 3, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Here is another contender for most over-the-top reaction to President Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord. Francois Hoisbourg, described as a French defense expert who advised President Macron during his campaign, said: We have just witnessed President Trump putting an end to European-American relations. Something must have been lost in translation — sanity. Insane though it may be, the Washington Post, in a story by Michael
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April 14, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
North Korea is threatening military action against South Korea and the United States. Indeed, it has promised to send “nuclear thunderbolts” at the first sign of a preemptive American strike. North Korea has made threats like this before. However, I believe President Trump has rattled Kim Jong Un, something previous administrations failed, or didn’t want, to do. Consider the events of this week. The Trump administration has launched an air
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