By Michael Whitney
The Trump tariff extravaganza was never about trade deficits, reindustrialization, or bringing jobs back to America. It was always about China. Now that Trump has either eased or lifted the tariffs on 90 other countries, we can see what’s actually going on. Trump is using the ‘tariffs smokescreen’ to implement his decoupling policy, a strategy that is designed to isolate, encircle and eventually crush the People’s Republic of China. That’s the motive that drives the policy. The tariffs were just a means to an end. This is from CNN:
President Donald Trump announced a complete three-month pause on all the “reciprocal” tariffs that went into effect at midnight, with the exception of China, a stunning reversal from a president who had insisted historically high tariffs were here to stay.
But enormous tariffs will remain on China, the world’s second-largest economy. In fact, Trump said they will be increased to 125% from 104% after China announced additional retaliatory tariffs against the United States earlier Wednesday. All other countries that were subjected to reciprocal tariff rates Wednesday will see rates go back down to the universal 10% rate, he said.
“Based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets, I am hereby raising the Tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125%, effective immediately,” Trump said in his social media post. “At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable,” he wrote. Trump announces 90-day pause on ‘reciprocal’ tariffs with exception of China, CNN
China’s “lack of respect”? So, Trump is setting US trade policy based on bruised feelings?
That’s just not a credible explanation. Something else is going on here.
China is being targeted because China’s meteoric rise and explosive growth has made it a threat to America’s global hegemony. That is why China has entered Washington’s crosshairs. By imposing prohibitive 125% tariffs on Chinese exports, Trump is indicating that the era of integrated markets in a globalized system is over. The world is being redivided into warring blocs by wealthy Capitalists in the West who cannot compete with China’s government-led model that controls the nation’s critical industries and recycles massive profits back into vital infrastructure, education, R&D and technology. The West’s highly financialized model—that increasingly depends on skimming the cream off toxic securities and stock buybacks—cannot remake itself into a manufacturing powerhouse willing to compete with China on a level playing field. Instead, it must use its waning influence to jolt the system with some unexpected fireworks display (the tariffs) that sends shockwaves through the system and panic across the markets. These contrived spectacles, that border on economic terrorism, are all part of Uncle Sam’s repertoire that are used to subdue the opposition and maintain Washington’s tenuous grip on power.
But do they work?
Trump seems to think so. Here’s Trump with his billionaire friends discussing ‘the killing’ they made when he eased the tariffs and markets soared.
[https://twitter.com/Megatron_ron/status/1910238378064257143]
We should have seen through this hoax from the very beginning. After all, if Trump was serious about bringing jobs back to the US, wouldn’t he have convened a Blue-Ribbon panel of industry experts and economists to create an industrial policy that would provide a roadmap for how to proceed? Wouldn’t he have looked into the feasibility of re-industrialization in a country that has already shuttered the bulk of its factories and no longer has a workforce that is trained to do the jobs that are about to be created? And wouldn’t he have solicited the support of wealthy Capitalists who could be persuaded to make the long-term investments required for an industrial project of this magnitude?
Yes, he would have. But he didn’t do any of those things, because he wasn’t serious about any of it. The whole tariffs-fracas was just an illusionist’s trick aimed at creating a pretext for attacking China. That’s why it was so easy for Trump to end the charade with a wave of his hand as if nothing had happened. Because nothing had happened. It was all a glitzy light-show devoid of any real substance.
And no one makes my case that ‘this was all about China’ better than Trump’s right-hand man, Treasury Scott Secretary Bessent. Check out this clip of Bessent boasting about how he tricked China.
@BehizyTweets
Treasury Secretary Bessent just revealed that President Trump laid a trap and China fell into it. “This was driven by the president’s strategy… You might even say that he goaded China into a bad position. They responded. They have shown themselves to the world to be the bad actors, and we are willing to cooperate with our allies and with our trading partners who did not retaliate.” “It wasn’t a hard message. Don’t retaliate. Things will turn out well.” China screwed up badly.
[https://twitter.com/BehizyTweets/status/1910032448676626726]
Bessent is obviously pleased that he and Trump were able to ‘pull a fast one’ on China. Bessent thinks that’s good policy. And, of course, the American people—most of whom are distrustful of China to begin with—agree. “China is ripping us off”, says the president whose nation’s bank account is $36 trillion overdrawn and whose country lives on ‘the generosity of strangers.’ “China is stealing our jobs”, say the corporate bosses who uprooted their businesses and factories lock-stock-and-barrel and shipped them to China to take advantage of the cheap labor and free security. But now China must be crushed for aspiring to compete with “their betters” in the USA. Now China must be ‘brought to heel’.
Isn’t that what’s really going on? (if we’re honest with ourselves) Isn’t this really a case of sour grapes?
Indeed, it is. China has overtaken the US as the manufacturing capitol of the world through intelligence, hard work, ingenuity and an organizational model (recycled profits into productive activity) that is the result of good governance. That is why China is rapidly surpassing the US in science, technology, AI, quantum computing, robotics and nearly everything else. Because they are governed by people who aspire to create a civilization in which individuals and community achieve their full potential. This is why the entire country is crisscrossed with high-speed rail linking shiny, space-age cities together in a vision of 21st century modernity that is unrivaled in the world today. Whatever one may think about China, they must admit that—as a civilization and a society—they are headed in the right direction while the dilapidated, threadbare and deeply polarized US is in steep decline.
In any event, China’s success has generated considerable envy among western elites who are now determined to do everything in their power to turn back the clock to the post war era when the global economy was their oyster, and the “rules-based order” was the only game in town. The goal is to “contain China’s growth”, which is a sobriquet for subverting China’s development at every turn. The particular strategy even has a name. It’s called “decoupling” which refers to the process by which the United States (and other Western countries) reduce their economic, technological, and financial interdependence with China. In other words, western elites want to terminate trade with China as much as possible which will lead to isolation, encirclement and eventually, regime change. Sound familiar?
The trick is to make “decoupling” (economic isolation) look like it is being forced upon the United States which is why Trump keeps repeating the inane phrase, “China is ripping us off.”
Just to clarify that point: China gives US consumers quality merchandise that requires expensive resources, factories and investment in exchange for green sheets of paper of diminishing value. On which end of that deal would you rather be?
Take a minute and watch this short video with economist Larry Summers who explains that China is NOT cheating anyone by producing inexpensive goods that it is willing to exchange for USD.
[https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1910296288610189704]
Lawrence Summers:
“If China wants to sell us things at really low prices and the transaction is we get solar collectors or we get batteries that we can put in electric cars and we send them pieces of paper that we print. Do you think that’s a good deal for us or a bad deal for us?”
Characterizing this as “cheating”, like Summers rightly says, should be rejected entirely. At the end of the day, who’s more “cheated”: the party doing the hard work of producing goods at very low prices on razor thin margins, or the party that simply prints a virtually infinite amount of fiat money to pay for all this stuff?
In short, the ‘tariffs flap’ was just a way to kick off the new policy (which is decoupling) which is aimed at intensifying the hostility between Washington and Beijing. With that in mind, I asked Grok the following question:
Does President Trump support decoupling with China?
Yes, former President Donald Trump has been a strong advocate for decoupling from China, both during his presidency (2017–2021) and in his subsequent political activities as of April 2025….
Trump initiated a trade war with China in 2018 by imposing tariffs on billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods… In 2018, the U.S. imposed tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese imports, followed by additional tariffs on $200 billion more in 2019….Trump framed this as a necessary step to “decouple” from China’s economy.
Trump banned U.S. companies from using equipment from Chinese telecom giants like Huawei and ZTE, citing national security risks. He also pushed for restrictions on TikTok and WeChat, arguing they posed threats to data privacy and could be used for espionage… He encouraged allies to exclude Huawei from their 5G networks, framing it as part of a broader effort to reduce technological dependence on China…..
During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly called for even tougher measures against China, including higher tariffs (proposing rates as high as 60% on all Chinese goods) and a complete overhaul of trade relations. In a speech in Ohio in March 2024, he said, “We’re going to decouple from China like never before. They’ve ripped us off for decades, and it’s time to end it.”
Trump has argued that decoupling would protect American jobs, strengthen the economy, and reduce national security risks. In a post from January 2025, he wrote, “China has taken advantage of us for too long. We need to cut the cord and build everything here at home.”
As of 2025, however, his tone has hardened, with less emphasis on negotiation and more on confrontation….
Posts on X from early 2025 show Trump doubling down on his anti-China stance, with supporters praising his “toughness”…. Grok
So, Trump is a big proponent of decoupling, which tells you everything you need to know.
Also, Trump’s hard-nosed policies towards China are heaped under the patriotic-sounding rubric, “economic nationalism”, as if American workers derived some benefit from higher prices and soaring inflation. The fact is, however, is that ordinary people will suffer greatly from decoupling and see their standards of living fall even further. That’s because the policy is not intended to create jobs, increase wages, improve health care or provide lower-cost education. It is aimed at preserving Washington’s grip on global power so that corrupt western elites can create more mischief while driving the country further into debt and despair. Here’s more from Grok:
Many economists forecast that these wide-ranging tariffs will accelerate inflation and dampen US economic growth, resulting in stagflation as economic growth falters even as prices remain painfully high…. Additionally, China is unlikely to lower its tariffs to appease Trump; instead, it has retaliated with 34% tariffs on US goods. Both countries’ increased tariffs will reduce bilateral trade.
While China can survive without importing most of the US$125 billion in American goods, the US and many other countries will continue to rely on China for various parts and components. Even if the US imports goods from other countries, those countries will still depend on China for parts.
Potential contradictions and economic consequences
Trump’s reciprocal tariffs are likely to cause a self-inflicted recession in the US. Also, it could create confusion and unintended consequences… Seven years ago, Trump’s first wave of tariffs raised the cost of Chinese goods by 20%, but US imports from China continued to grow….
In the future, even if tariffs on Chinese products rise to 54%, the US will still need to buy from China. By contrast, American products, such as soybeans or crude oil, have limited competitiveness in China. China’s retaliatory tariffs on the US will force it to find alternative markets, leading to losses for US soybean and crude oil exporters….Grok
What part of the above excerpt sounds like a ‘good deal’ for the American people?
None of it. It’s all bad. And the one glimmer of light in this whole dismal affair is the fact that the American people oppose the policy because they know they’ll be hurt by it. Take a look at this survey at PEW:
Tariffs On China
Tariffs are another key part of Trump’s foreign policy. Increased tariffs on China, specifically, receive more negative than positive evaluations…. Many more think the increased tariffs on China will be bad for the U.S. than say they will be good, though around a quarter either see them having no effect or are unsure.
Views of the tariffs’ personal impact are similarly negative: Americans are about five times as likely to say the increased tariffs on China will be bad for them as they are to say the tariffs will be beneficial.
Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say increased tariffs on China will be good for the U.S. and good for them personally. Still, when it comes to the personal impact of these tariffs, Republicans are more likely to say the impact will be bad (30%) than good (17%), even as substantial shares express uncertainty or anticipate the tariffs will have limited personal impact. Tariffs On China, PEW Research Center
So, at least there exists a slim majority of Americans who oppose decoupling, oppose the relentless provocations and incitements, and oppose Trump’s pointless War on China. Let’s hope that majority holds.
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Michael Whitney is a renowned geopolitical and social analyst based in Washington State.
13 April 2025
Source: globalresearch.ca
