Why Does Trump Keep Giving China a Pass?

Commentary

The grumbling in the MAGA ranks over President Donald Trump’s China policy is growing louder.

Remember all the early talk from the administration of banning TikTok, which many believe to be a Chinese spy app? Well, not only has the president not banned it, but he has recently opened a White House account on it.

Instances of Chinese “students” stealing U.S. intellectual property continue to pile up, with more arrests occurring. But instead of cutting back on student visas as expected, Trump has now floated the idea of issuing 600,000 more—on the grounds that they help keep tuition-hungry colleges afloat.

But the big question raised by many MAGA folks is this: Why isn’t Trump hitting China harder on tariffs?

Not long ago, he gave China yet another 90 days to come to terms on trade. This means that the current truce in the trade war does not expire until Nov. 10, close to a year into his presidency.

Of course, in the meantime, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has pinkie promised to lift all of its nontariff barriers on U.S. imports, and to resume exporting rare earths—on which China has a virtual global monopoly—to U.S. manufacturers.

China’s Great Wall of lies on trade just got two bricks higher, in my opinion.

But I also think that, given how well things have been going in the trade negotiations with other countries—the European Union and South Korea have now both caved to Trump’s demands—we owe Trump the benefit of the doubt.

Trump is, after all, the ultimate big picture guy. And what the president sees is that Beijing’s dream of world domination is turning into a nightmare before our very eyes.

The CCP’s grand strategy was to destabilize the world, lighting fires everywhere to disperse our forces, deplete our munitions, and provoke the United States into yet more armed interventions.

But here, Trump, the peacemaker, has stymied Beijing at every turn.

In the Middle East, China’s Iranian client has been neutered, and its terrorist proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah, crippled.

In Southeast Asia, China-backed Cambodia was ready to go to war with U.S. ally Thailand. But the conflict was over before it had really begun, thanks to Trump’s timely intervention.

Then, there was the dangerously escalating conflict in South Asia between Pakistan—another China client state—and India, one that could easily have erupted into a major war, or even gone nuclear. But Trump also shut that conflict down.

While there has been no big breakthrough in Ukraine, the president is working overtime to bring that conflict to an end. If Moscow—the CCP’s “strategic ally”—decides to ease tensions and cooperate with Washington in ending the war, another pillar of Beijing’s strategic plan will crumble.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping wanted to “sit on the mountaintop and watch the tigers fight,” as the Chinese saying goes. But Trump has turned out to be very good at taming tigers.

If things are not going the CCP’s way abroad, the situation at home is even worse.

The tariff war may be on pause, it is true, but China’s critical export sector is being squeezed in other ways. The loophole allowing goods sold for less than $800 to escape tariffs has been closed. Transshipping goods through other countries has been blocked. Even Europe is now upping its inspections of Chinese cargo and placing “holds” on questionable goods.

Trump’s actions to date have already sent China’s overall economy into a tailspin. According to the regime’s official statistics, one-third of the medium and large businesses in the country are losing money. Payments to suppliers and employees are being delayed for months on end, pushing the entire economy ever closer to collapse.

Even local governments are finding it difficult to pay their employees. In at least one Chinese city, the police have taken to stealing money directly from people’s bank accounts. And here you thought debanking was bad.

Those who do have money are sending it overseas into safe havens such as the United States and Australia.

The official figures indicate that China has “invested” $3.1 trillion overseas, but where has the money gone?

It’s not into building Chinese versions of Walmart, Apple, and Burger King. These don’t exist. Instead, the money has gone into private stock market accounts, land purchases, and McMansions in Florida and California.

The elite, seeing the handwriting on the wall, are robbing the country blind and stashing their money in safe havens overseas.

This is the same thing that corrupt Nationalist officials did in 1949 when their own government collapsed in the face of the communist advance.

The difference now is that there is no resistance—at least organized resistance—to the misrule of the CCP.

How much longer China’s huge security apparatus can protect the CCP elite from the public’s justified anger is anyone’s guess. But if the security forces find themselves missing paydays, all bets are off.

So, you see, it’s not that Trump is going soft on China by not pushing the country to the wall on tariffs.

It’s that he sees that China has already hit the wall. The only question now is: When will it give way?

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.