President Trump said that when he met with President Xi at the White House, "After listening for 10 minutes, I realized it's not so easy. I felt pretty strongly that they had a tremendous power [over] North Korea." Of course China has leverage over North Korea. North Korea depends on China as a trading partner. In 10 minutes, Trump's view on China for thirty years apparently changed with a persuasive short argument from the president of a country that continually walks all over the U.S. This was Trump listening to the "last man in the room" at its worst.
Trump said he told President Xi, "The way you're going to make a good trade deal is to help us with North Korea; otherwise we're just going to go it alone." The last part of that sentence is what the U.S., along with its allies, should do. China will help regardless because it's in China's own interest to do so.
Not allowing China to take advantage of the U.S. has been a Democratic issue for over forty years, from Dick Gephardt to Bernie Sanders, and it became a key one for Trump too-- a rare area of campaign agreement. The president's promise to stand up to China was one of the major reasons he won the election.
China should not get a free ride because we want their help with North Korea. In 2015, the FBI released a survey of 165 anonymous companies, half of which reported they had been victims of economic espionage. Of that half, 95 percent blame China.
The counterfeit goods market in China costs companies $20 billion a year. Are they buying us by Americans enjoying a $30 "Rolex" from a Times Square vendor? Simply put, China's illegal actions are costing American jobs.
To prevent a nuclear North Korea, the recent U.S. deployment of the "mother of all bombs" was as much a warning to other countries, including North Korea, as it was about destroying ISIS tunnels in Afghanistan. The U.S. has military might and is willing to use it. North Korea knows that. It is not worth caving to China, who costs the U.S. billions of dollars a year, and allowing them to keep manipulating currency and committing economic espionage.
Otto Warmbier's coma and death, and Korea's missile tests and H-bomb, are just more proof Schumer is right--Instead of making nice with China, President Trump must hold them accountable, as he promised.
Robert Weiner is a former Clinton White House spokesman and spokesman for the House Government Operations Committee. He was senior staff for Congressmen Ed Koch, Charles Rangel, Claude Pepper, and John Conyers, Jr. Ben Lasky is senior policy analyst at Robert Weiner Associates and Solutions for Change.
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