It’s time to get tough with China, says the South China Morning Post. [1]
Deal or no deal, the ongoing US-China trade war has already taken its toll on the Chinese economy. The latest evidence is the decline in profits in China’s export-oriented manufacturing industry. In the first two months of the year, Chinese industrial firms’ profits fell 14 per cent year on year, to 708 billion yuan (US$105 billion), according to the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics. It is the sharpest contraction since 2009.
Obviously, the trade war with the United States has dealt a severe blow to China, the world’s second-largest economy, and weighed on Chinese factory activity, corporate earnings, business and consumption.
The trade row halved China’s industrial profit growth, from 21 per cent in 2017 to 10.3 per cent in 2018. Some sectors were hit harder than others. Automobile industry profit fell 42 per cent in the first two months of the year, as vehicle sales dropped for eight straight months up to February.
I know it was interested this is exactly what Gordon Chang over at The Daily Beast has been saying for some time now.
(And by the way, Gordon Chang is the only reason to bother with The Daily Beast.)
China is going to be desperate for a deal assuming that we’re willing to play hardball with them.
Of course this is something you’ll never hear the Democrats talking about. They might have to admit Trumps got this one right.