Make China Great Again
Tariffs failed. Diplomacy failed. Strategy missing. All thanks to Trump.
China grew 5.3% in the first half of the year. America managed 1.25%.
The trade war Trump launched with such fanfare in January is over. Beijing won. Not by a little. By a lot.
When Trump cranked tariffs on Chinese goods to 145% in April, Xi didn’t blink. He slapped 125% tariffs right back on American products. Then came the real counterpunch – restricting rare earth exports.
No rare earths. No fighter jets. No EVs. No smartphones.
The historic trade win Trump’s handlers marketed to the base turned out to be a three-to-one disadvantage. American tariffs dropped to 30% while China’s fell to just 10%.
But here’s what they buried in the fine print: export controls on sensitive technology to China essentially vanished. July saw the administration wave through Nvidia’s advanced H20 chips – the ones with those pesky military applications.
Matt Pottinger and David Feith, both Trump alumni, called it a “strategic misstep.” They’re being polite.
Taiwan’s president wanted to visit Washington. Beijing objected. Visit canceled. Same story with Taiwan’s defense minister.
Time to recognize the pattern.
Then Trump hit India with 25% tariffs. The reason: they buy Russian oil and gas. Brilliant strategy: alienate the one regional power that could help contain China.
New Delhi and Beijing are already warming relations.
The rest of America’s Asian allies are getting fleeced too.
Vietnam and Taiwan: 20% tariffs.
Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines: 19%.
Japan and South Korea: 15%.
Australia gets a 10% baseline, but 50% on metals.
While Trump plays with tariffs, China dominates the technologies that actually matter. They lead in batteries, solar panels, EVs, drones, machine learning, and high-performance computing.
America’s response has been to cut federal research funding by 30% and make it harder for foreign students to study here.
China graduates four times as many STEM students as America.
They’re pouring billions into R&D while America’s… building walls.
The Pew Research numbers should terrify any American strategist still paying attention. Among high-income countries surveyed, 32% view China favorably. America scores 35%.
That three-point spread used to be thirty points.
Soft power evaporating faster than a crypto startup in 2022.
Volkswagen’s new Chinese plant will use 1,100 robots. One comes from Germany. The other 1,099 are all Chinese-made. Twenty years ago, every robot would’ve been imported. Today China leads the world in robotics. And AI. And manufacturing. And materials science.
Trump fired the State Department team coordinating responses to Chinese aggression in the South China Sea. He’s trying to shut down Voice of America – leaving Chinese state media to fill the vacuum from Jakarta to Lagos.
Income inequality in America hit historic highs pre-2024. Manufacturing jobs won’t fix that – Boeing workers suffer the same wealth gap as everyone else. In 1980, the top 1% took 10% of payroll. Now it’s 20%.
But Xi plays a longer game. Taiwan remains his north star.
Every Trump blunder brings reunification closer.
When push comes to shove over Taiwan, who stands with America now?
Japan, after being “humiliated”?
India, after getting slapped with punitive tariffs?
Australia, paying 50% premiums on their metals?
Trump ran on making America great. He’s making China greater instead.
China and India – 2.8 billion people between them – are finding common cause against American bullying. Their diplomatic thaw accelerates weekly. Two Asian giants, both nuclear powers, both tired of Washington’s tantrums.