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”.

The Koch brothers’ — the billionaire plutocrats and GOP mega-donors — network of organizations are railing against President Trump’s tariffs on China to protect American workers and U.S. industry. This month, Trump hiked tariffs to 25 percent on about $200 billion worth of Chinese manufactured goods. Trump has also ordered trade officials to begin reviewing the process of increasing tariffs to 25 percent on an additional $300 billion worth of Chinese goods. In the wake of the latest round of tariffs, the Koch brothers’ organizations like the Americans for Prosperity (AFP) and the Libre Initiative demand that the Trump administration...

President Donald Trump’s trade war with China could cost the average American family of four up to $2,300 a year, according to a report on the effect of tariffs on the U.S. economy and workers. The study, by the economic consulting firm Trade Partnership Worldwide, assesses how tariffs will affect American consumers and the economy. According to the report, an average American family of four would pay $2,300 more in goods and services each year if Trump imposes a 25% tariff on all goods from China, as he has repeatedly threatened. If tariff levels remain where they are today, the...

* 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...

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...

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.

News reports suggest that in the coming weeks, the United States and China might sign an agreement that repeals the tariffs the two nations have been levying on each other’s goods for the past nine months. If past behavior is any guide, Donald Trump will call it the greatest deal ever, and global markets will breathe a sigh of relief. But the deal will likely constitute only a modest pause in Washington’s growing hostility toward Beijing. That’s partly because, for Trump, no agreement is truly final. The president, The New York Times recently observed, “has repeatedly agreed to new trade...

Are you kidding me? I’m used to partisan, inaccurate drivel from all sides these days, but the media’s coverage of President Trump’s tariffs and the so-called “trade war” takes some kind of cake. There’s no serious doubt that some in the media would absolutely love to tank the stock market. They figure that would hurt Trump’s re-election chances in 2020. Monday’s stock market slump, which saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.82% tumble 2.4% and the Nasdaq Composite 3.4%, looked just like what the doctor ordered. I write this, incidentally, as someone who is no fan of the president....

There are five things everyone should know about our trade war with China: 1. President Trump and his advisors will not back down. China’s expectation that the White House would give ground on issues already decided was profoundly mistaken. Their hope that Trump would prioritize his political desire for a buoyant stock market and booming economy over re-engineering our trade relationship with China was an error. 2. China’s senior official in the talks, Vice Premier Liu He, suggested that the changes his team demanded in terms already agreed to were “very natural.” He further said that the issues at stake...

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...

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...

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...

All I can say is you better strap yourself in because, the next six months I expect to see tariffs on the other $300 billion we import from China because it's become clear that President Trump has decided that the U.S. simply shouldn't do business with China and if you do you are going to have to pay the price. There's also threats that they will cut off our liquefied natural gas exports to them. Now, here's what's pretty ironic about this list. The vast preponderance of these goods are made by farmers. The farmers, the president said, are going...

... The Dow is now nearly 1300 points lower than it was in January 2018 when Mr. Trump began his tariff offensive—despite the best 12 months for economic growth since 2005 and healthy corporate profits. The stock market isn’t the only measure of economic health, and it can send false signals, but in this case the clear market message is that tariffs will subtract from economic growth. Regarding China, Americans have been giving Mr. Trump the benefit of the doubt that his tariff strategy is intended as leverage to negotiate a better, fairer trading regime. But Mr. Trump seems to...

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...

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....