Trade maneuver works

Comports with art of the deal

It was a clever and bold move by the Trump administration to add 28 Chinese firms and organizations to a United States blacklist a few days before the latest round of high-level tariff negotiations with that country.

The move, officially a response to human rights repression against Muslim minority groups in China, served to produce quick results against the Asian country over trade inequalities.

The move comports with President Donald Trump’s

“art of the deal” mentality, ratcheting up pressure on China as a new round of trade talks began. The action effectively blocks the Chinese entities from buying U.S. tech products unless domestic firms get U.S. government approval to sell them.

Those blacklisted included technology companies that developed facial recognition and other artificial intelligence used by the Chinese government to spy on and restrain ethnic minorities in their country’s northwestern region of Xinjiang. That region is considered by most to be a detention area with “retraining” camps.

America has imposed tariffs on more than $360 billion of Chinese products exported to this country, and China has reciprocated on imported U.S. goods, depressing export volumes by both countries.

U.S. officials maintained the action was not related to the trade talks. But after just a few days of the resumed trade talks, China agreed to immediately buy up to $50 billion in U.S. farm products and Mr. Trump suspended a tariff increase set for this month. The president touted the progress in the trade talks.

Mr. Trump has shown the Chinese he means business about getting a fair trade deal and that he has a host of weapons at his disposal to push China toward an acceptable trade solution.