President Trump is right about one thing. China really has been stealing many of America’s most valuable ideas.
For years, the Chinese government turned a blind eye to counterfeited U.S. luxury goods, bootlegged Hollywood films, fake Apple stores, trade secrets pilfered from cutting-edge U.S. tech companies. It forced U.S. firms to hand over their technology if they wanted to operate in China.
Now the Chinese government has decided to borrow one of our best foreign policy ideas, too: banding together with allies to punish a cheating, trade-obstructing bully.
On Friday, the Trump administration is slated to unilaterally impose tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods. Trump has said additional tariffs on hundreds of billions in Chinese goods are in the pipeline, too.
Alas, the tariffs going into effect Friday will probably punish us and our allies more than they’ll hurt China. Because of some poor choices by Trump trade officials, the tariffs mostly miss Chinese companies and instead target U.S. and other non-Chinese multinational corporations operating in China, according to an analysis from the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
Nonetheless, the Chinese government feels it must respond to this and Trump’s other big, bad protectionist measures. So, it’s doing two big things.
First, it’s retaliating with tit-for-tat tariffs on U.S.-made products, including soybeans, cars, pork, dairy and other goods disproportionately made in Trump Country.
Those retaliatory tariffs are slated to take effect Friday, after Trump’s tariffs go into effect. That’s no accident. China wants to be seen as a counterpuncher, rather than the aggressor in this dispute.
“China absolutely won’t fire the first shot,” China’s cabinet said in a statement.
