Translation : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA
Host : Qin Peng / Publisher : Qin Peng Observations / Editor : Li Hao / https://www.epochtimes.com/b5/24/12/5/n14385445.htm
The master behind Trump’s series of trade wars: “My focus is the mission”
Steve Jobs once said: Only those who are crazy enough to think they can change the world can truly change the world. Peter Navrro is undoubtedly such a person. He is a key soul figure who has promoted the complete change of the entire world order from 2016 to the present. He has changed the United States and also changed China.
On 4 December 2024, Eastern Time, Trump announced the appointment of Navarro as a trade adviser. The Wall Street Journal believes that Navarro’s promotion shows that Trump will seriously promote the high tariffs he promised during the campaign.
Previously, Trump appointed a series of financial cabinet figures: Nominating Lighthizer’s former chief of staff Greer as the new trade representative, appointing Wall Street tycoon Bessant to lead the Treasury Department, and appointing Lutnick as Commerce Secretary and responsible for the new Government trade agenda. The appointment and the absence of former Trade Representative Lighthizer have raised concerns among some of Trump's protectionist allies.
Now, Navarro's appointment has given these people a huge sigh of relief. Because, contrary to what most people know, they think that Lighthizer is the driving force behind Trump’s trade war and American manufacturing. In fact, Navarro is, and his book “Death by China” is the driving force behind Trump’s trade war and American manufacturing, and the true guide to popular trade thinking.
In announcing the appointment, Trump said, "Throughout my first term, few people have enforced my two sacred rules more effectively or tenaciously than Peter: Buy American, hire American." "He helped. I renegotiated unfair trade deals like NAFTA and the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS), and fast-tracked every one of my tariffs and trade actions..."
Trump also said, "His mission will be to help successfully advance and communicate Trump's manufacturing, tariff and trade agenda."
Indeed, since joining the Trump campaign in 2016, Navarro has repeatedly urged Trump to follow his instincts on trade issues, and Trump subsequently imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum from China and imposed tariffs on China. He also suggested that Trump threaten to withdraw from NAFTA and then threaten Mexico if it fails to stop the flow of migrants across the border... He also heightened Trump's suspicion of the WTO.
"Peter understands economic warfare better than anyone." Bannon, Trump's former strategist, said of Navarro's influence on Trump. "People are laughing at him behind his back, but look at this." The direction of things.”
To this day, the various policies toward the CCP promoted by Trump and Navarro have been continued by the Biden administration. In May 2024, the United States doubled its tariffs on imported solar cells from China, and later imposed a 100% tax on Chinese-made new energy vehicles. This week, the United States took action against Chinese semiconductors again, and 140 companies were included in the export blacklist.
On 21 January 2021, the Chinese Communist Party announced sanctions on 28 former Trump government officials, including Pompeo, O'Brien and others, and Navarro was listed second. His attack on the CCP is evident.
As a hawkish official, Navarro is now highly regarded and respected. However, what is less known is that he was almost kicked out of the White House because of this.
The Wall Street Journal revealed that because of his stance on China and trade, he was excluded from important trade meetings in the first two years of Trump’s administration and was forced to communicate through intermediaries instead of directly contacting the president. Whenever he approaches the Oval Office, aides are instructed to call the White House chief of staff.
In a March 2017 memo to Trump, Navarro complained that "Wall Street factions" (a reference to then-economic adviser and former Goldman Sachs executive Gary Cohn and others) were blocking his and Trump's " America First” agenda. The letter never reached Trump's desk because it was blocked by his opponents who believed Navarro's behavior fell outside of normal procedures, according to a person familiar with the matter.
He was excluded because he was a Democrat at the time and had been endorsed by former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Clintons to run for the U.S. Senate.
At the end of 2019, China and the United States reached a phase-one trade agreement, in which China agreed to purchase tens of billions of dollars in additional agricultural products and take measures to protect intellectual property rights. Some fellow hawks criticized the deal as not being tough enough to force China to change the way it does business. Later, Navarro participated in television and online comments to talk about the new trade agreement with China, emphasizing that tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods still exist. At this time, it became the consensus of the Trump administration to be tough on the CCP, and Navarro's position was finally stabilized.
Among Trump officials, few are as tenacious as Navarro. He said he plans to stay in office as long as the president wants him around. "I'm one of the very few people in this town who's not looking for the next job," he said. "My focus is on the mission."
But if it weren't for one factor, he would have been advised to be dumped by more senior White House officials.
What is it? Bannon revealed the secret: "It's simple, Trump will ask, 'Where is my Peter?'" Indeed, whenever Trump thinks a tougher trade policy is needed, he will ask, "Where is my Peter?" Where". He never said that about other officials.
At the end of 2018, a major event that attracted world attention occurred, the U.S.-China talks with Argentina. The Chinese Communist Party tried its best to exclude Navarro but Trump still brought him along. Therefore, everyone can see that Trump’s love and admiration for Navarro comes from the common mission deep in their hearts - to save the United States and restore American jobs. At critical moments, we must work together to advance and retreat.
Non-mainstream economist: the first to understand the CCP’s ambitions and threats
Perhaps we can say that Trump’s desire to save the United States relies more on his intuition; and as an economist, Navarro is like a hand good at painting, able to perfectly depict and convey Trump’s inner thoughts.
In 2011, Navarro and Professor Greg Autry, who was working at the California Business School, co-authored the book "Death by China: How America Lost its Manufacturing Base". The book uses a large number of facts to describe the threat posed by the CCP to the U.S. economy and the CCP’s ambition to dominate the Asian economy.
Trump said of this book: "His arguments are clear and well-researched, which is impressive. The book clearly describes the huge harm that globalization has caused American workers, and he points out a clear path for the American middle class."
This is strikingly similar to Trump. Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski once told how he felt when he first noticed Navarro. In the fall of 2015, while riding in a taxi in New York, he heard a radio interview in which Navarro discussed China. "He sounded just like Trump," Lewandowski later recalled. He then contacted Navarro, who agreed to join.
In fact, these two people have been close friends for a long time. The New Yorker reported that Trump read Navarro's book in 2011 and told the Chinese Communist Party’s Xinhua News Agency that he liked Navarro’s first book on China, “The Coming War with China,” published in 2006. The book discusses how China will come into conflict with other countries around the world over energy, natural resources, the environment, intellectual property rights, and other issues. They communicated subsequently, but it was during Trump's first campaign that the two met face to face for the first time.
Sometimes it is lonely when one wakes up too early. You know, when Navarro wrote these cautionary words about China, the American corporate world and Wall Street were full of panda-embracing factions, and almost everyone was shouting "Go to China." Navarro has long been criticized by other economists for this.
Jason Furman, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to former U.S. President Barack Obama, once quipped: “The greatest root causes and greatest solutions to America’s economic challenges can be found in domestic policy.” They said. I think Navarro is unfounded.
Navarro's recognition resonated with Trump, who praised Navarro as "a visionary economist" when he was first appointed.
In "Death by China," Navarro explains China's threat to the United States from three perspectives: currency manipulation, unfair trade policies, and deadly goods. Since China joined the WTO in 2001, a large number of government-subsidized products have entered the United States, causing 57,000 factories to close and 25 million Americans unable to find decent jobs. In many places, the last job of American workers is to dismantle machines and ship them to China. Other industries serving the manufacturing industry, including research and development, have subsequently relocated, causing massive unemployment in the United States.
In the book, he also listed eight "weapons" used by the Chinese Communist Party to eliminate American job opportunities:
1. An elaborate illegal export trade subsidy network.
2. Cleverly manipulated and grossly undervalued currency devaluation.
3. Blatant counterfeiting, piracy, and theft of U.S. intellectual property.
4. The Chinese Communist Party has short-sightedly destroyed the environment on a large scale in exchange for a few yuan advantage in production costs.
5. Ultra-low labor health standards and safety standards far below international standards have resulted in a large number of workers suffering from cotton lung disease, physical disabilities and various cancers.
6. Illegal tariffs, quotas and export restrictions on key raw materials from antimony to zinc are part of a strategy to gain greater control over the world's metallurgical and heavy industries.
7. Predatory pricing and dumping squeeze foreign rivals out of key resource markets, and then use monopoly pricing to defraud consumers.
8. The CCP is proud of the “Great Wall of Trade Protectionism” that prevents all foreign competitors from setting up shop on Chinese soil.
This book was later made into the video "Death by China" of the same name. What you are seeing now is the Chinese authorized version of NTDTV.
On the promotional page of the documentary, Trump's recommendation is written: "It hits the nail on the head. This documentary uses facts, data and insights to describe our problems with China. I recommend you to watch it as soon as possible."
Perhaps because of Navarro's own firm beliefs, or perhaps because of the mentality that "a wise man will die for his bosom friend" and "you treat me as a wise man, and I will repay you as a wise man," Trump has been under fierce attack after leaving office in 2021. , but Navarro still publicly stood up to support him. In 2023, because he refused to testify before Congress against Trump, he was convicted of two counts of "contempt of Congress" and was sentenced to four months in prison in January 2024. He once criticized the FBI for "putting shackles on my feet" when he was arrested and locked in the same cell that once held John Hinckley Jr., the suspect who assassinated President Ronald Reagan.
Navarro has no regrets. On the day he was released from prison on 17 July 2024, he attended the Republican National Convention and said, "I went to jail, so you don't have to go to jail." "The J6 Committee asked me to betray Donald J. Trump who wanted to save his own life."
This is also an important reason why I admire Navarro: fearless for the justice in his heart. His character can be compared with that of a saint.
Navarro’s influence will be greater in the new term: human rights, viruses and Taiwan
So, what changes will Navarro bring to the world during Trump's new term?
From an official position, he will play a role in tariffs and trade. However, due to his firm belief and perseverance, Navarro will also play a role in more fields, including geopolitics, human rights in China, covid virus origin tracing, financial war, and he may even promote the disintegration of the CCP.
1. In terms of global trade, he is a staunch supporter of reducing the U.S. trade deficit. He is famous for criticizing Germany and the Chinese Communist Party and accusing the two countries of currency manipulation. He believes that the trade deficit is a disaster for the United States and advocates manufacturing in the United States. This will inevitably promote high tariffs and trade wars in the United States. As for the CCP, it may escalate to a financial war.
2. Geopolitics, he will push the world to contain the CCP and defend Taiwan.
Navarro's vision is very broad. In many books, including "Death by China" and "The Coming War with China", he mentioned that "if a war breaks out between the United States and China, Taiwan will be one of the strategic keys." He also advocated that if a war breaks out between the United States and China, the United States must adopt asymmetric tactics and "treat others in their own way." This includes deploying submarines at the choke point of the first island chain (via Taiwan).
3. In terms of human rights, expose the evil practices of the CCP.
"Death by China" spends a lot of space to severely condemn the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong, which believes in "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance," and accuses the CCP of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners and forcing labor. We know that Rubio, Trump’s quasi-Secretary of State, is also the sponsor of the Senate version of the “Falun Gong Protection Act” and also calls for a crackdown on live harvesting by the CCP. In Trump's new term, after the bill is passed and Trump signs it, attacks on senior CCP officials will surely follow.
Navarro and An Yiming love China deeply. At the end of the book "Death by China", they repeatedly emphasized that they are not against China, but the CCP. They love Chinese culture and are good friends with many Chinese people.
On the title page of the book, they also wrote: "Dedicated to all Chinese friends. I hope they can live freely one day. Before that day comes, please take care of yourself!"
4. Trace the origin of the covid virus and seek compensation from the CCP.
Navarro also condemned the CCP for spreading viruses around the world and demanded an investigation into the source of the covid virus and compensation from the CCP.
Recently, on 2 December 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives Special Committee released a 520-page report after a two-year investigation, stating that the covid virus was most likely leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology laboratory. In the United States alone, millions of lives have been lost, causing losses of US$18 trillion. After taking office, will Trump let the CCP go?
Of course, there will be more. How long can the Communist Party of China, which is already struggling, be able to sustain itself in the face of a new round of powerful attacks? Let us wait and see.
I wish Mr. Navarro once again to return to the White House, and let us look forward to the day when China will be free!
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