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Opinion | When even China hawks and doves agree, it’s time for Trump to tell Americans the painful economic truth about the US-China trade war
- Robert Boxwell says despite their differences on China, hawk Peter Navarro and dove Henry Paulson agree there is no quick fix to the trade war
- China hasn’t made enough progress on fundamental issues of concern and is now perceived as a national security threat to the US
Reading Time:4 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Peter Navarro and Henry Paulson, two Americans with vastly divergent views on trading with China, made speeches last week that indicate a speedy resolution to the US-China trade war may be hard to find.
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White House trade adviser Navarro, speaking at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, criticised Wall Street bankers and American “globalist elites” for interfering in the Trump administration’s trade negotiations with Beijing.
Calling them “unregistered foreign agents”, he said, “As part of a Chinese government influence operation, these globalist billionaires are putting a full-court press on the White House in advance of the G20 [summit] in Argentina”, where US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are scheduled to meet later this month.
Navarro’s 2012 book, Death by China: Confronting the Dragon – A Global Call to Action, as you might imagine, doesn’t advocate expanding the two countries’ trade. His detractors call him an “extremist” when they’re in polite company. His comments about “globalist elites” were the focus of news coverage, but his 45-minute speech was substantive.
He spoke about the administration’s efforts to restore the US manufacturing and defence industrial base, noting that “economic security is national security”. Americans, by meddling in the trade talks, are undermining Trump’s efforts not just on trade but also on national security.
It’s a very American thing to go on cable news or write an op-ed and tell your president how to improve his job performance. But it’s an entirely different thing to visit Beijing and speak out afterwards against the policies of the US government.
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