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On April 26, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that China will “eliminate improper rules, subsidies, and practices that impede fair competition and distort the market.”
But today we find out that China walked back on its trade commitments and Trump pretty much doubled the tariffs on Chinese goods.
From the American bipartisan consensus perspective, the costs of living with these trade practices are far too high to justify perpetuating an unreformed trade relationship with China.
BUT EVEN MORE IMPORTANT:
Xi Jinping’s government almost certainly uses the state sector to distribute income to politically significant individuals and groups, which helps prevent challenges to his power. Over the last few years, Xi has rewired China’s political system, severely damaging the intra-party democracy that Deng Xiaoping established to prevent a repeat of the horrors of Mao Zedong. The destruction exacted on the Chinese political system, and the accumulation of personal power, make these tools more vital for the Chinese government to hold onto power because they increase the likelihood that political threats will come from Chinese elites.
IS TRUMP A GENIUS OR WHAT?
Source compiled from: Twitter, The American Conservative, The UK Sun