Our China policy needs clear goals

Bloomberg.com

“Trump’s China strategy isn’t working,” said Anne Stevenson-Yang, because the administration doesn’t really have a realistic idea of what it can achieve. What the U.S. seems to want is “the total destruction of China as a competitor.” By advertising that, the administration has “unnecessarily awakened Beijing’s deepest nationalist fears.” The only outcome for the United States has been an overall reduction in trade—China’s imports from the U.S. fell 25 percent in November from a year earlier—and higher prices on Chinese-made goods. “In other words, fat taxes on the American consumer.” The U.S. does have legitimate complaints. China used to woo U.S. busi-

ness with new highways going from airports to luxury hotels. No longer. Now, instead, “Beijing has a coordinated strategy of stealing U.S. technology and evading American export-control laws.” But the White House’s contradictory trade policy isn’t helping with that. The U.S. needs to focus on a few clear strategies: Pursue intellectual property enforcement, go after China’s “red aristocracy” to stop money laundering and violations of Iran and North Korea sanctions, and offer access to the U.S. market in return for entry into China’s. Concentrating on those aims will let us achieve most of our goals, without inciting a bellicose backlash from Beijing.