What Happened When Trump Tried To Stop Us Funding For The Communist Chinese Wuhan Lab
Dated: June 18, 2021
Listen to top scientists and editors from esteemed medical journals and you cant help but conclude there is such a thing as a scientific establishment. And its been as corrupted by politics and misinformation as many in politics and the media.
In my 2017 investigation into Fake Science, Dr. Marcia Angell, the first woman to serve as Editor-in-Chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, explained why she says a large percentage of published studies are not to be believed.
I came to the New England Journal of Medicine in 1979, says Angell. Starting about then was when you saw the drug companies assert more and more control until finally they over the next couple of decades, they began to treat the researchers as hired hands. They would design the research themselves. You know you can do a lot of mischief in how you design a trial. Or weâll test this drug and weâll tell you whether it can be published or not, and so if itâs a positive study, itâs published if itâs a negative study, itâll never see the light of day.â
That sentiment is shared by Dr. Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief of the British journal Lancet. In 2015, he wrote a scathing editorial saying, âMuch of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue science has taken a turn towards darkness.
The case against science is straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue.
Dr. Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief, Lancet
Trumps Foreign Policy Moments
Donald J. Trumps presidency marked a profound departure from U.S. leadership in areas such as trade and diplomacy, as well as an across-the-board toughening of immigration policies.
In his inaugural address, President Donald J. Trump announces an America First approach to foreign policy and trade, which centers on reducing U.S. trade deficits and rebalancing burden sharing within alliances. Trump promises to unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism and emphasizes that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first.
Trump directs the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a twelve-country, Asia-focused trade agreement the United States had championed under the Barack Obama administration.
The president signs an executive order banning nationals of six Muslim-majority countries from traveling to the United States for ninety days. The order, later amended to include an additional two countries, also indefinitely freezes refugee intake from Syria. Days later, a federal judge in Washington State blocks part of the order, beginning a series of judicial challenges. That same week, Trump signs two other executive orders concerning immigration. One directs federal funds to the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and the other bars so-called sanctuary cities from receiving federal grants.
Washington Post
Surpluses Are Usually The Consequence Of Suppressed Wages
This tendency to conflate unlike trade effects effectively misses the point. They do not ignore the impact of imports altogether, but their methodology seems to assume automatically that imports increase real household income by more than they reduce household income through direct job losses. Meanwhile, they simultaneously ignore the ways imports can repress wages or raise indirect unemployment, along with the indirect job losses caused by this wage suppression.
In nearly every country running large, persistent surpluses, the household share of GDP is lower than that of peer countries and trade partners. This isnt merely a coincidence. It is low wages relative to productivity that allows countries to run surpluses, and yet the USCBC analysis seems implicitly to deny that countries increase international competitiveness mainly by directly or indirectly reducing the wage share of production, or that when countries implement policies to improve what they deem international competitiveness, this is usually nothing more than a euphemism for policies that directly or indirectly suppress wages.
That is why they find that more trade can only result in higher real household income. They exclude the possibility that, to the extent a surplus country relies on lowering wages to become competitive enough to run its surplus, it must put downward wage pressure on its trade partners.
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Us Exports To China Likely Would Have Been Higher Without A Trade War And Phase One Agreement
Was the trade war worth it for US exporters? The answer so far is no. Suppose that in 201821, US goods exports to China of phase one products had grown at the same pace as China’s imports of those products from the world and that US services exports to China had grown at the rate of US services exports to the world. Cumulative US goods and services exports to China in 201821 were about 19 percent lower with the trade war and phase one agreement .
These estimates suggest the United States would have avoided trade war export losses of $24 billion in 2018 and $30 billion in 2019. Exports would also have been $27 billion higher in 2020 and $40 billion higher in 2021 than under phase one. Without the export losses in 201819, American taxpayers would also not have needed to foot the bill for tens of billions of dollars of farm subsidies.
The trade war was also costly to the US economy through the impact of the US tariffs. Numerous economic studies have documented that the effect of the tariffs was to raise prices and hurt American consumers and companies buying imported inputs, harming American competitiveness by reducing employment and sales. Some sectors and workers may have benefited from the US tariffs, but those gains were more than offset by losses by others, resulting in overall damage to the US economy.
He Has Poured Praise On Xi
Since arriving in Beijing, Mr Trump has been fulsome in his praise for the Chinese leader, saying at one point: âYou are a very special man.â
He has also enthusiastically thanked Mr Xi for his hospitality in several tweets.
President Xi, thank you for such an incredible welcome ceremony. It was a truly memorable and impressive display! ð¸
Donald J. Trump
Looking forward to a full day of meetings with President Xi and our delegations tomorrow. THANK YOU for the beautiful welcome China! Melania and I will never forget it!
Donald J. Trump
Mr Trump flew into Beijing on Wednesday and was greeted with great pomp and ceremony, in what was billed as a âstate visit-plusâ.
He has tweeted several times since arriving in China â where Twitter is banned. But a White House official told reporters that he would âtweet whatever he wantsâ.
As part of his Asia trip Mr Trump has already visited South Korea and Japan, and will go on to Vietnam and the Philippines later in the week.
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Follow The Paper Trail
According to President Trumps July 2015 financial disclosurewhich was not verified by regulators and therefore may not include all of his foreign deals or assetsTrump owned, had ownership interest in, or was a managing member of several companies related to potential business in China, including the following:
- THC China Development LLC, president
- Value: $100,001 to $250,000
- Income amount: None
According to President Trumps May 2016 financial disclosurewhich also was not verified by regulators and therefore may not include all of his foreign deals or assetsTrump owned, had ownership interest in, or was a managing member of several companies related to potential business in China, including the following:
- China Trademark LLC, member, president
- THC China Development LLC, president
- Value: $1,001 to $15,000
China Likely To Strike Back
In comparison, the US imported $452 billion worth of goods from China in 2019. Bown pointed out, however, that Beijing could strike back in ways that would hurt American businesses.
Ironically, it would be more impactful for trade if China were to respond with an escalation and forceable takeover of Hong Kongs trade policy, Bown said. If Beijing were somehow able to extend its retaliatory tariffs that would have a bigger impact, as the United States exports over $30 billion a year to Hong Kong.
Trump also said the State Departments travel advisory for Hong Kong will be revised to reflect the increased danger of surveillance and punishment by the Chinese state security apparatus.
Some former officials said Trumps response could end up hurting Hong Kongs residents.
The Hong Kong-related provisions in Trumps announcement were fairly vague and it remains to be seen how quickly and extensively they are implemented, said Danny Russel, a former senior director for Asian affairs on the National Security Council who is now a vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute. But it is not at all clear that the removal of Hong Kongs special status will make things better for the people we would like to help and, in fact, might inadvertently accelerate their loss of autonomy.
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What Has Donald Trump Done
The US president has ratcheted up existing import tariffs of 10% on certain Chinese goods sold in the US to 25%.
The increase came into effect on Friday on a long list of products shipped after 12.01am EDT.
There was no breakthrough in talks in Washington between the US trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, and the Chinese vice-premier Liu He before the midnight deadline.
Trump has warned 25% tariffs could be imposed on a further $325bn of goods in future, which would mean all Chinese imports being covered by tariffs.
What Is China Accused Of In Xinjiang
Activists say China is trying to assimilate Muslim ethnic groups by force, by destroying their culture and banning their practices.
China says the camps in the autonomous territory are vocational educational centres that target Islamic extremism.
A report in March said tens of thousands of Uighurs had been transferred out of Xinjiang to work in factories across China.
Chinese state media said any labour transfer was voluntary.
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American Exports Have Fallen Well Short Of Targets In The Deals First Year
DONALD TRUMP is rarely accused of subtlety. His bellicose approach to Chinas trade surplus and its unfair practices was no exception. Swingeing tariffs on Chinese goods did succeed in bringing China to the negotiating table. In January 2020 the two countries signed a phase-one trade deal. China agreed to raise its imports of a selection of American goods from $78bn in 2019 to $159bn in 2020, with yet more spending pledged in 2021. The president hailed this as a momentous steptoward a future of fair and reciprocal trade with China.
In reality, the deal was limited and trade disputes rumbled on regardless. Worse still, China has failed spectacularly to meet that $159bn commitment in the agreements first year, according to a new analysis by the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a think-tank in Washington, DC. In 2020 China spent only $94bn on the American goods covered by the deal. That is about as much as it did in 2017, before Mr Trump began his trade war . Granted, the numbers in 2020 may have been dampened by the covid-19 pandemic. But Chinas economy still recovered enough to grow by 2.3% last year. By June its total imports had regained pre-coronavirus levels.
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Column: How China Took Trump To The Cleaners In Their Big Trade Deal
China hasnt come close to meeting the commitments on trade it gave Trump in January
There were always doubts that China could absorb imports on the scale that the deal called for. The arrangement required China to import $52 billion in oil over two years. But the country was then importing about $8 billion a year in crude oil, liquefied natural gas and other energy products from the U.S. Experts were dubious that Chinese energy imports could more than triple, considering that the country has other import sources and was trying to develop domestic exploration. In any event, soon after the deals announcement, oil industry leaders told Trumps aides they couldnt provide products at the level the deal required.
An unanticipated factor contributed to the deals failure, Bown writes: the pandemic, which struck both countries about the time it was announced, shutting down both economies and cross-border trade. The pandemic shuttered the tourist trade, a major component of Chinas pledge to step up service purchases. Business travel fell by 90%.
The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic undermined any chance of success, Bown acknowledges.
It was not the only factor. Others included the relocation of U.S. auto manufacturing to China and elsewhere to avoid the tariffs. The collapse of U.S. aircraft sales in the wake of the 2018 and 2019 crashes of Boeings 737 Max airliner also contributed.
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The Biggest Obstacle To China Policy: President Trump
Overseeing chaotic actions is a president whose goal with Beijing has been to secure a trade deal that would help him get re-elected.
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WASHINGTON As national security officials and some trade advisers in the Trump administration tried crafting get-tough-on-China policies to address what they viewed as Americas greatest foreign policy challenge, they ran into opposition from an unexpected quarter.
President Trump himself was undermining their work.
That has been the underlying tension of the last three and a half years, laid out in blunt language in the new memoir by John R. Bolton, Mr. Trumps former national security adviser. The book supports what administration officials have said in interviews and private discussions since 2017, and what, in many ways, had been out in the open in Mr. Trumps fawning statements about Chinas authoritarian leader, Xi Jinping, many made on Twitter.
Taken together, the accounts reveal that there has been no coherent China policy, despite efforts early in the administration by senior aides to frame foreign policy around what they labeled great power competition, outlined in their own national security strategy document.
Make sure I win, Mr. Trump told Mr. Xi, according to unredacted pages seen by Vanity Fair.
Law Enforcement And Crime
There are about 18,000 U.S. police agencies from local to federal level in the United States. Law in the United States is mainly enforced by local police departments and sheriff‘s offices. The state police provides broader services, and federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Marshals Service have specialized duties, such as protecting civil rights, national security and enforcing U.S. federal courts‘ rulings and federal laws.State courts conduct most civil and criminal trials, and federal courts handle designated crimes and appeals from the state criminal courts.
As of 2020, the United States has a intentional homicide rate of 7 per 100,000 people. A cross-sectional analysis of the World Health Organization Mortality Database from 2010 showed that United States homicide rates “were 7.0 times higher than in other high-income countries, driven by a gun homicide rate that was 25.2 times higher.”
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Trump Takes A Unilateral Transactional Approach
Trumps sledgehammer approach to the US-China relationship has been problematic at best.
For one, Trump viewed the relationship transactionally, hardly scratching the surface of the deeper structural issues such as state subsidies and labour standards that exist between the countries.
He believed he could reduce the massive US trade deficits with China through a big, beautiful monster of a trade deal and this would be a silver bullet for both the economy and his re-election prospects.
This explains all the flip-flops during the drawn-out trade negotiations, during which Beijing largely managed to use the deal as bait to keep larger strategic issues off the table.
Moreover, Trumps policies toward China, at least on the trade front, were unilateral. Instead of finding common ground with allies, Washington angered and deserted its allies by invoking punitive tariffs , renegotiating trade agreements to the US advantage and reducing its security commitments under NATO.
At the same time, the Trump administration relinquished US leadership in global institutions dealing with trade, climate change and human rights. As a result, the US lost its allies when it needed them most and gave China a new platform on the international stage.
After The Speech: What Trump Did As The Capitol Was Attacked
New evidence emerged in the impeachment trial about what President Donald J. Trump did from roughly 1 to 6 p.m. the day of the Capitol attack. But many questions remain unanswered.
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By Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Martin
The impeachment trial of former President Donald J. Trump largely focused on his actions leading up to the violent attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6. But there was a crucial period that day of nearly five hours between the end of Mr. Trumps speech at the Ellipse urging his supporters to march to the Capitol and a final tweet telling his followers to remember the day forever that remains critical to his state of mind.
Evidence emerged during the trial about what Mr. Trump was doing during those hours, including new details about two phone calls with lawmakers that prosecutors said clearly alerted the president to the mayhem on Capitol Hill. Prosecutors said the new information was clear proof of Mr. Trumps intent to incite the mob and of his dereliction to stop the violence, even when he knew that the life of Vice President Mike Pence was in danger.
Still, many crucial questions remain unanswered about the presidents actions and mood from roughly 1 to 6 p.m. Jan. 6. Here is what is known so far:
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