Free Republic

China’s state-run media outlets have come out in force this week after keeping relatively quiet in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement of tariff increases on Chinese goods. Whether it’s the mouthpiece of the Communist Party or the national television broadcaster, the latest commentary exudes confidence about China’s ability to stand up to the U.S. That’s in contrast to a more muted press in preceding weeks. In an environment of tight government control of what messages are allowed to surface, the shift can shed light into what Chinese leaders are thinking about the drawn out trade negotiations....

US President Trump signed an executive order Wednesday declaring a national emergency, barring the use of telecommunications equipment made by companies deemed a threat to national security… The Executive Order did not name China or Chinese companies specifically. However, separately, and soon after the order was signed, the US Commerce Department did just that. The Commerce Department added Huawei and 70 affiliates to its “Entity List” after it concluded that the Chinese company was engaged in activities “contrary to US national security or foreign policy interests”.

Stocks reversed early losses Wednesday amid reports that the Trump administration is planning to delay auto tariffs by up to six months. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 0.6%, or 17.09 points, as of 12:33 p.m. ET, as the materials sector outperformed. The Dow (^DJI) rose 0.48%, or 123 points, while the Nasdaq (^IXIC) edged up 0.98%, or 75.73 points. On Wednesday, several news outlets reported that the Trump administration is planning to pause on implementing auto tariffs ahead of a May 18 deadline. The Commerce Department had compiled a report earlier this year that concluded Trump could justify imposing tariffs...

* China is grappling with a widespread African swine flu (ASF) epidemic, a disease fatal to pigs but harmless to humans. * ASF's effects on pigs are gruesome. Symptoms include diarrhea, depression, and miscarriages. * The government is urging farmers to cull infected pigs to prevent the spread of the disease, which is in turn dramatically decreasing the country's pork production. * Dutch bank Rabobank estimates that the country will kill 150 million to 200 million pigs — or one third of the country's supply — this year. * China is the world's largest pork producer and consumer. The steep...

Steve Bannon said there is "no chance" President Donald Trump will back down as trade tensions rise between the U.S. and China. The former White House chief strategist praised Trump while speaking with CNBC's Squawk Box, depicting the president's efforts to alter financial relations with China as a necessary step to change the trade dynamic with a country he says has waged "economic war against the industrial democracies for 20 years." "This is going to set the world in one direction or the other for the next 20, 30, 40 or 50 years. And we've let this drift for so...

VIDEO Liberals are bad mouthing President Trump for placing higher tariffs on Chinese goods as a tactic to get that country to sign on to a fair trade agreement which would lower their high tariffs on American goods. They fear a Trump win so much that they don't care if their rhetoric emboldens the Chinese to continue standing firm against coming to an agreement. Meanwhile CNBC's Jim Cramer provides a reality check on what is at stake and how the liberal talking heads are so wrong about fighting a trade war with China to WIN.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is confident that the tariffs imposed by POTUS Donald Trump on China, including the latest round of 25 percent levies on $200 billion worth of goods, is much more than Beijing will eventually be able to weather. During an appearance on “Sunday Morning Futures” with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, Gingrich responded to a Twitter post by the president hinting that the Chinese government is “waiting” him out hoping that 2020 Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden wins the presidency next year and things can go back to ‘normal.’ “I think the Chinese are caught in...

Wu Shichun is one of countless Chinese entrepreneurs who over the past four decades have prospered from access to American customers and money. Today, as the American government threatens to take that away, the serial entrepreneur and venture capital investor is fundamentally rethinking how he does business. One of his portfolio companies designs and makes fashion products in China, then sells to American consumers on Amazon.com. Another, a vape device maker, sells most of its products in the United States. The third, which makes metal materials for electronic manufacturers, exports 40 percent of its production there. All three would be...

Not as strong as many, including President Trump believes. GDP growth and even the jobs data, including the unemployment rate, though fairly sunny, look deceptively strong and need a deeper look, which we have provided for you over the past few weeks. See here.How Will The Economy Hold Up As Trade War Escalates?More important, is the U.S. economy so strong it can withstand an escalation in the trade war with China?We seriously doubt it and fully expect Trump will be forced to cave on some of his completely unrealistic demands. We have been consistent from day one: China will never...

As his limo carried him to work at the White House Monday, Larry Kudlow could not have been pleased with the headline in The Washington Post: "Kudlow Contradicts Trump on Tariffs." The story began: "National Economic Council Director Lawrence Kudlow acknowledged Sunday that American consumers end up paying for the administration's tariffs on Chinese imports, contradicting President Trump's repeated inaccurate claim that the Chinese foot the bill." A free trade evangelical, Kudlow had conceded on Fox News that consumers pay the tariffs on products made abroad that they purchase here in the U.S. Yet that is by no means the...

Slowly but steadily they build up their economic, military, and technological superiority at our expense The Chinese Communist government does not have so much a strategy to translate its economic ascendance into global hegemony as several strategies. All of them are brilliantly insidious.On matters of trade, China is always flexible in responding to critics of its asymmetrical, 30-year mercantilism. In the initial stages of Westernization, China was exempted from criticism over serial copyright and patent infringement, dumping, and espionage. Western elites assumed that these improprieties were just speed bumps on the eventual Chinese freeway to liberalism. Supposedly the richer China...

Dubai: Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al Falih said on Tuesday that two oil pumping stations for the East-West pipeline had been hit by explosive-laden drones, calling the attack "an act of terrorism" that targeted global oil supplies. Falih condemned the attacks in a statment saying: "The latest acts of terrorism and sabotage in the Arabian Gulf... not only target the Kingdom but also the security of oil supplies to the world and the global economy." "These attacks prove again that it is important for us to face terrorist entities, including the Houthi militias in Yemen that are backed by Iran,"...

As tensions rose over the weekend between the US and Iran in the Persian Gulf, several vessels were “sabotaged” off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. Both Iranian media and the UAE reported the incident, but 24 hours after it happened, much of what occurred was still shrouded in mystery, with allegations of “explosions” and questions about how severe the “sabotage” actually was. The Saudi energy minister confirmed that two of its oil tankers were targeted in a “sabotage attack.” It took place as the tankers were “on their way to the Arabian Gulf” via the Emirate of Fujairah,...

RUSH: Now, let’s go to the audio sound bites. Grab audio sound bite number six. We have a montage here of the Drive-By Media suddenly understanding how taxes hurt people. When it’s time to explain the Trump tariffs, now all of a sudden the Drive-Bys seem to know everything about taxes. KRISTEN WELKER: (voice over/b-roll noise) You could pay higher prices on thousands of products like electronics, appliances and furniture, to basic items like clothing, bedsheets, shampoo, and cereal. BEN TRACY: Companies can either take on those costs and make less money, or they raise prices on U.S. consumers, which...

The U.S. sneaker market is valued at $21.2 billion, according to Cowen Equity Research, and while sneakers were left off President Trump’s most recent duty list, many sneaker fans are wondering what effects a new round of tariffs could have on the booming industry. On May 10, Trump made good on his promise to raise tariffs by 15% on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports. The now 25% tariffs are meant as a punishment to China for the country's refusal to accept the Trump Administration’s latest version of a potential trade deal. Trump also ordered the Office of the United...

Apple closed down nearly 6% on Monday after news of a major escalation in the U.S.-China trade war. China said on Monday that it decided to raise tariffs on some U.S. goods after President Donald Trump threatened to further raise tariffs on Chinese imports last week. The trade war is affecting a lot of different stocks, but Apple seems to be hit harder than most. The Dow Jones Industrial index dropped 2.6%, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 3.5%. Apple is especially vulnerable to a trade war with China for two primary reasons. First, it assembles its iPhones primarily in China....

Key Points President Donald Trump says he has not “made that decision yet” on whether to put tariffs on another $325 billion in Chinese goods. Trump says China’s latest round of retaliatory tariffs represent “a very positive step.” Trump confirms he will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 summit in Japan in late June. ============================================================ President Donald Trump said the latest round of retaliatory tariffs announced by China on Monday puts the United States in a great position and represents “a very positive step” in the ongoing trade negotiations. China retaliated Monday...

Former vice president Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden partnered with infamous mobster Whitey Bulger's nephew and former secretary of state John Kerry's stepson for his lucrative business deal with the Bank of China, according to reporter Peter Schweizer's latest book. Schweizer points to the business deal with state-owned Bank of China, a $1.5 billion private equity investment, as a possible reason why the current presidential candidate has adopted a conciliatory attitude toward China. The lucrative deal between the Bank of China and Hunter Biden's company was inked in 2013 just weeks after Joe Biden brought his son along on an...

While many Democrats continue to push the lie that POTUS Donald Trump is a stooge of Russia their allies in the garbage American media are serving as propaganda mouthpieces for Communist China. On Monday, the Left-wing establishment press peppered the airwaves with one fabrication after another regarding the effect of POTUS Donald Trump’s latest round of tariffs on $200 billion worth of imported goods from China as a way of finally leveling the trade playing field between both countries that has long favored Beijing, and heavily. In the process, these same propagandists finally came clean about the effect of tax...

RUSH: It’s amazing. The Drive-By Media now understands the concept of tax cuts and tax increases, but it took tariffs and a tariff war with the ChiComs for the Drive-Bys to understand it. I’m being ironic and a little sarcastic. They know it and understand it. It’s just that since the Republicans own mantra of tax cuts, since that is a Republican owned belief… Democrats don’t believe in cutting taxes; Republicans do, and the Democrats know it. So whenever the concept of tax cuts comes up, the Democrats and the media have to destroy it, as they did the latest...