Tag: Taiwan

Donald Trump’s Tariff Fantasies

MEL GURTOV – Donald Trump thinks the world of tariffs. But Vice President Kamala Harris referred to her opponent’s tariff policy as a “Trump Tax.” She’s right: Several independent studies have found that the new tariffs, if implemented, would raise costs for the average middle-class family anywhere between $1,350 and $3,900 a year. And J.D Vance claimed that when Trump was president and raised tariffs on Chinese goods, “prices went down for American citizens. They went up for the Chinese but they went down for our people.” Totally wrong. In fact, the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing opposed Trump’s tariffs precisely because US importers would have to pass along higher prices to consumers, making their goods less competitive. But Trump wasn’t listening.

China Gives Oomph to Russia’s ‘Nyet’ on NATO

RAY MCGOVERN – Fourteen years ago today, when then-ambassador to Russia William Burns, in an IMMEDIATE cable titled “Nyet Means Nyet: Russia’s NATO Enlargement Redlines,” reported Moscow’s warning that NATO membership for Ukraine would cross a red line, the Russians could do little more than grouse. Enter from left stage Chinese President Xi Jinping last year with the shot of adrenalin Putin needed to make “Nyet” stick. Under-Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and her protégé Antony Blinken seem to be in the dark about the close ties between Russia and China represented by such give and take between the two countries.

Meet the Biden Advisor Who Wants a Cold War with China

KOOHAN PAIK-MANDER – President Joe Biden called President Xi Jinping of China on September 9, 2021, to work toward rapprochement as tensions in the western Pacific had reached a fever pitch. The very next day, Biden’s call was undermined by inflammatory information provided on September 10 to the Financial Times by anonymous officials from his own administration. It drew immediate ire from Beijing.