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Make no mistake. If China has a GDP 2x the US and the US business are heavily reliant on China we’ll also be licking Xi’s boot. You already see it with how Hollywood kowtows to China with the hopes that it can get a movie into the country. Trump’s tariffs are not popular with many but it is breaking dependence on China’s supply chain and manufacturing.

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Trump just continued for a second time a special allowance for Huawei to purchase components from US companies so the notion that there is any sort of coherent trade policy directed at China by the current administration seems suspect. I opposed the TPP on numerous grounds but I do wish a less cumbersome trade agreement in a similar vein with the same partners had been enacted.

The lack of a unified trade policy is easier to understand if you bear in mind that it's actually a huge team of people negotiating on the US side, almost all of which none of us have heard of before. It's definitely not Trump hashing a deal out on the top floor of his office: he's probably providing some executive direction, but even then he has other things demanding his time.

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