Checkmate China
Does everyone now understand that fair trade is a secondary goal of Trump's tariffs?
A grand strategy is emerging.
The best strategies in geopolitics are complex, going after multiple effects simultaneously rather than a blunt force object like a neocon fueled, bombing campaign to secure behavior change from one sole actor.
President Donald J. Trump and his team are turning to weaponry America possesses far more lethal than any tank or bomber.
We the People are the weapon.
In 2023, Americans spent just shy of $4 trillion on overseas products and services.
The lion’s share of those numbers is high margin finished goods, not bulk commodities.
We are a nation of consumers.
Our consumption economy is putting the most formidable weapon available in our president’s "America First" hands . . . Leverage.
Access to American markets via tariff controls not only sues for fair trade bilaterally, in the case of despotic regimes like the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), they can shape behavior.
Tariffs have potential to topple the tyrannical.
China has taken that harsh fact, and us, for granted.
Over the years the CCP has come to rely on a lumbering country whose politicians and bureaucrats, few of which have ever built a business or sweated payrolls and other overhead, who were all too happy to sell out the land of the free and home of the brave to enrich themselves, sending our manufacturing to mainland China.
Trump 1.0 (c. 2017-2020) began to address this problem despite all the antibodies the swamp could throw at him.
The CCP breathed a sigh of relief when Biden’s questionable win stuck to the wall, and business as usual could make its return.
China wins, Mainstreet USA loses.
Then came Trump 2.0/commander in chief number 47.
The first 100 days back in the Oval were a blur of executive actions and chaos at a whole new level, even by swamp standards.
Under the cover of a president looking to address ridiculous trade deficits and lost jobs with protectionist tariffs, the real target, China’s CCP, was obscured.
The press, sensing something was afoot, suddenly became macroeconomic, monetary and trade policy experts overnight, attempting to evangelize Americans that the loss of cheap stuff at Walmart would end them.
In addition to tariffs already on the books, Xi Jinping and the party were slammed with 145% uptick.
Rather than quietly approach President Trump to find a new path, the arrogant Communists already facing an economic disaster from their own central planner lunacies, predictably went into full attack.
The Chinese foreign ministry vowed to "fight to the end."
China would never yield.
Afterall, China stole American manufacturing fair and square, one corrupt politician at a time.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called the regime’s bluff.
The CCP blinked.
Vowing never to negotiate, the CCP delegation came to Switzerland, hat in hand, inking a 90-day pause that only strengthened the Trump hand.
The mainstream media says the opposite happened, but we expected that didn’t we?
Note: If you think this isn’t about China, ask the UK’s PM Keir Starmer.
He inked a trade deal with President Trump, in which the fine print says the U.S. gets to review any deals the UK contemplates with China.
Poor Xi, flying all over Asia, looking to build an anti-U.S. trading coalition, saddened to learn his "friends" were sticking with the U.S.
Author of "Plan Red: China’s Project to Destroy America," Gordon Chang, astutely identified that this is about much more than commerce:
"Trade with China is not just about trade. Trade with China finances the Communist Party's assault on both smaller states — Beijing is conducting proxy wars on three continents--and on America. If we want peace, we must stop funding China's wars. This should not be hard to understand."
China’s predatory dumping, drug cartel and fentanyl support, interference in American politics, disregard of World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, theft of intellectual property and support for enemies of the U.S. are just a few of the CCP efforts which must stop if they want balanced access to American markets.
Today, the CCP looks on with horror as their banks fail, currency plummets, and factories, capital, and entrepreneurs flee their country.
Last week, domestic unrest and the vaporized economy led the party to stop publishing all economic data.
CCP censorship isn’t stopping angry workers who haven't been paid in months from burning down factories.
Real estate crashes and bank failures have the party on the ropes.
Trump 2.0 sees this.
A Purge Too Far?
Social media and independent journalists are pointing to a potential replacing of Xi Jinping and the Politburo by the Fourth Plenum this fall, engineered by Vice Chairman of the Military Committee General Zhang Youxia.
It's clear with purges and counter-purges that party infighting is bubbling over.
While they struggle for control, they may be ignoring the real threat these Trump 2.0 policies have created; an angry Chinese people who want to see the Mao Dynasty end and are increasingly contemplative of doing something about it.
Is there a "Mr. Xi, Tear Down This Wall!" moment coming soon?
Brig Gen (ret) Blaine Holt is a former Deputy Representative to NATO, lifetime member on the Council on Foreign Relations, tech entrepreneur and Newsmax Contributor. The views presented are those of the author and do not represent the views of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, or its components. Read Gen. Holt's reports — More Here.
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