Why China should mourn, not cheer, the exit of Steve Bannon and Trump’s ‘America first’ policy

Zhang Baohui says the isolationism of the Trump-Bannon team left a leadership void that saw China rise to the occasion. But with US establishment-types now likely to be pushing for global primacy, prime rival China is sure to feel the heat

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Published: 5:00pm, 24 Aug 2017Updated: 7:17pm, 24 Aug 2017

Beijing’s cheering of Steve Bannon’s resignation is ill-founded. What lies ahead may be a return to normality, that is, renewed attempts by America to preserve its global primacy. Illustration: Craig Stephens

On August 18, Donald Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon, resigned. That came shortly after Bannon’s sensational interview with Robert Kuttner, co-founder and co-editor of the progressive magazine American Prospect, which published it on August 16.

In the interview, Bannon claimed: “The economic war with China is everything. And we have to be maniacally focused on that. If we continue to lose it, we’re five years away, I think, 10 years at most, of hitting an inflection point from which we’ll never be able to recover.”

Promising to use trade sanctions to win the economic war, Bannon said, “one of us is going to be a hegemon in 25 or 30 years, and it’s going to be them if we go down this path.”

Indeed, after a brief lull when the Trump administration toned down its trade conflict with China to enlist Beijing’s help on the North Korean issue, the US has started to take harsher measures to address the bilateral economic relationship. For example, it has begun to use Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act to investigate alleged Chinese theft of US intellectual property and Chinese steel and aluminium dumping. Beijing has promised to retaliate if its economic interests are jeopardised.

Watch: US engaged in ‘economic war’ with China

With a trade war looming, Bannon’s surprise resignation last Friday should be welcomed by the Chinese. After all, he is the chief architect of Trump’s nationalist economic strategy. The Chinese elation was reflected in a Global Times editorial on August 19, titled, “Bannon’s China Agenda should leave the White House”.