Literally every assertion in this tweet is wrong.
1. The Chinese aren’t actually fretting for a deal. They’re playing it quite tough in fact, counter-tariffing us and running lots of stories about how China won’t be humiliated and succumb to bullying. This is totally unsurprisingly. Nationalism a powerful force,& Trump voters /2
would demand the same were the US in China’s position.
2. There’s no evidence of huge capital flight or that it’s being driven by US tariffs. T’s tariffs are mostly being passed on to US consumers & intermediate suppliers as higher prices. This is pretty well established /3
now, not that Trump cares.
3. China - and Russia & N Korea - all want Trump re-elected. He’s an alliance-wrecking, domestically hugely divisive, ignorant incompetent. That’s why Putin supported him to begin w/. He’s done more to damage US power than anything since Iraq War. END
ADDENDUM:
To those arguing that low inflation means the tariffs are not being passed on to US consumers and suppliers, here's @paulkrugman: nytimes.com/2019/08/03/opi…. One effect of the tariffs I didn't mention was trade diversion (to Vietnam, Mexico, etc.), but that's not /4
relevant to Trump's claim that the tariffs are driving Chinese K flight, nor the unadmitted reality that Americans are paying for the tariffs: princeton.edu/~reddings/pape….
To those arguing that the trade war means China doesn't want Trump re-elected, you are missing the larger /5
picture. Yes, Trump is a pain for China, but any POTUS would be at this point. An anti-Chinese strategic consensus is congealing in Washington: washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/0…. Any other D or R POTUS tough on China like Trump, if not necessarily in the same way. But Trump has the added/6
benefit of crippling US power through: staggering incompetence and shambolic governance; deeply dividing Americans against each other and possibly firing racial or electoral violence next year; undercutting US alliance relationships, including those which help counteract China /7
(Japan, South Korea, Australia); and similarly undercutting international institutions which mirror US values (NATO, the EU, the UN, the TWO, and TPP especially). So yeah, if you're China you'll take another 4 years of Trump, because he's burning down the liberal international /8
order. Trump is a gleeful, agenda-less, wrecking-ball. And every US opponent is hoping he'll win again, while allies are praying desperately he won't: . END
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