“Order? Somebody should tell Chairman Trump this isn’t the People’s Republic of America,” thundered an editorial in the Wall Street Journal on August 23. What prompted this diatribe was President Donald Trump's tweet "Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing your companies HOME and making your products in the USA.”
The WSJ, however, raised more questions about its motives than about the President's sentiment. It is clear what the Chief Executive wants to see happen to strengthen the United States against the rising power of the Republic of China (PRC). He wants the redeployment of economic capabilities to places where they will not be used against the U.S. and its allies.
The massive transfer of capital and technology across the Pacific has crated an industrial power now claiming Great Power status. Historians looking back at this abnormal period of "free trade" will wonder why Washington allowed such a strategic blunder to occur. Those of us who are living through it have seen the dangerous process hyped by outlets like the WSJ.
2015 military parade in Tiananmen Square commemorating 70th anniversary of China's victory over Japanese invasion.
(photo credit: Kremlin.ru)
For example, the WSJ editorial defended operating in concert with the Communist regime. It argued "supply chains that have been developed over decades can’t be uprooted overnight. And no country has China’s huge relatively skilled workforce, infrastructure and network of suppliers.” There is nothing in this statement about China as an export market for American-made goods that would support jobs and economic prosperity here.
His opponents do not understand President Trump’s negotiating strategy with China at all. He is the only recent politician who has shown even the slightest understanding of what it takes to stand up to totalitarian regimes. I have to admit that before he ran for president I sometimes thought he was a blowhard. But regardless, he is incredible and has accomplished a lot that I would never have thought was possible.