The monetary distortions, imbalances and perverse incentives are finally bearing fruit: trade wars. What ignites trade wars? The oft-cited sources include unfair trade practices and big trade deficits. But since these have been in place for decades, they don’t explain why trade wars are igniting now. To truly understand why trade wars are igniting and…
When America launches a preemptive attack on North Korea, will the US find itself at war with China? This is not an idle question. On Monday, the fiercest advocate of a preemptive attack on North Korea, John R. Bolton, joined the Trump Administration. Bolton, a former US Ambassador to the UN, replaces H. R. McMaster…
China’s President Xi Jinping had a message for his US counterpart Donald Trump this week: “Arrogance will get you nowhere.” He added that cooperation and dialogue were the only way forward to resolve disputes in today’s world. Xi was speaking about trade and commerce, but his remarks have wider resonance as the Trump administration high-handedly…
China responded to Trump’s tariffs with economic restrictions of its own, though its market has always been notoriously difficult to enter due to Beijing’s own ironically “protectionist” policies designed to safeguard its domestic producers, but the government has been easing its prior regulations in recent years in order to facilitate the country’s One Belt One…
Back in 2003, at the start of America’s disastrous invasion of Iraq, then Major General David Petraeus, commanding the US 101st Airborne Division driving toward Baghdad, famously asked my Washington Post colleague Rick Atkinson: “Tell me how this ends.” That phrase – both a question and a plaintive plea – came to capsulate the entire unplanned…
US Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer accused China of US Trade Act of 1974 violations, stating: “1. China uses foreign ownership restrictions, such as joint venture requirements and foreign equity limitations, and various administrative review and licensing processes, to require or pressure technology transfer from US companies.” “2. China’s regime of technology regulations forces US…
