White House Adviser Navarro Suggests Near-Term Deal With China Unlikely
Peter Navarro, the biggest China hawk in the administration, said it will be tough for the U.S. to find the "Art of the Deal" with China, speaking at a Nov. 9 event in Washington. "How do you deal with somebody if they won't even acknowledge your concern? I mean, it's Alice in Wonderland," he said, recalling how, at a meeting in Beijing in May, Chinese officials denied they engage in cybertheft or require technology transfers. "Even if you take 25 of those off," he said, referring to a lengthy list he's compiled of ways that China puts the thumb on the scale for its firms, "you still have 35 left, and that would probably be enough to hurt us. This is not about buying more U.S. soybeans or more coal. This is structural."
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Navarro, speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, blasted "the shuttle diplomacy by a self-appointed group of Wall Street bankers and hedge fund managers," whom he also labeled "unregistered foreign agents" and "globalist billionaires." News outlets have reported that the former chairman of Blackstone, former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, and others have gone to China to talk about tariffs.
Navarro said these "globalist billionaires are putting a full-court press on the White House in advance of the G-20 in Argentina. The mission of these unregistered foreign agents ... is to pressure this president into some kind of deal." He said that China wants "to get us to the bargaining table, sound reasonable, and talk their way, while they keep having their way with us." He said China's unfulfilled promises go back 30 years. He said the Chinese played people in the George W. Bush administration "like a violin."
Paulson said in a recent speech in Singapore that: "Nobody wins a trade war. And China can agree to enough of what President [Donald] Trump seeks to enable a deal that he can be proud of -- if it also marks the beginning of the negotiation of a high-ambition trade or investment agreement." But, he said, "let us also be clear that if China wants to keep its relationship with the United States from spinning out of control, it is going to have to look hard at some of its choices and policies." If China does not address the deep issues, Paulson said, "We are in for a long winter in US-China relations."
Navarro did not name any names, but identified Goldman Sachs, which is where Paulson once served as CEO. "When these unpaid foreign agents engage in this kind of so-called diplomacy, all they do is weaken this president and the negotiating position. No good can come of this. If there is a deal, if and when there is a deal, it will be on President Donald J. Trump's terms. Not Wall Street terms. But if Wall Street is involved and continues to insinuate itself into these negotiations, there will be the stench around any deal that is consummated. Because it will have the imprimatur of Goldman Sachs and Wall Street."