Washington Free Beacon senior writer Elizabeth Harrington said on Monday that the United States needs President Donald Trump's hardball approach to China.
"I think the approach of playing hardball with China is needed because we have China has been promising to open up its economy for years," Harrington said. "Meanwhile, the trade deficit has grown from $82 billion in the year 2000 to over $300 billion today. The previous administrations haven't addressed this problem. They haven't solved this problem, and Trump is saying we need to be tough."
Trump has been a vocal critic of U.S. trade policy and has targeted trade policy with China as top priority. He wants to address the $376 billion trade deficit between the United States and China, arguing it is inherently bad for the United States. The Trump administration is in current trade negotiations with the Communist Party-led government, and it has suspended $150 billion of tariffs on imported products from China.
Harrington added it is not just in the case of trade where China is causing problems for the United States.
"It's not just on trade either, where China has been hostile and they're a big problem here. They are propping up North Korea. They are interfering in those talks. Secretary Mattis just went after them because of their coercion and intimidation in the South China Sea," Harrington said. "So trade is just one aspect of this; we need to be tough on China not only because Trump promised to do so, but also because they are causing a lot of problems for us geopolitically."
Fox Business host Neil Cavuto asked Harrington where the Trump administration's trade actions will lead.
"So Liz, maybe the expectation of cooler heads prevailing here, but I could see this getting to a new low with the Chinese. Maybe that is all for the benefit of the longer term. But the markets have got way ahead of themselves. What is your read from people you talk to?" Cavuto asked.
"Well, right. I think Trump, he thinks trade wars are easy to win and he's going to be tough on this because that's the business perspective that he comes from," Harrington said.
She said Trump's new approach might be what is needed after decades of doing things the "conventional" way.
"But I will caution, everyone always says Trump's approaches are not going to work and the conventional wisdom that 'we can't do this or we can't do that.' But so far, on his different approaches to North Korea, different approaches to the economy, and now we see with trade – we'll see what happens here – but people have been wrong, and Trump has been right," Harrington said. "So maybe a new approach is needed when we see after decades of these problems getting worse, we've being taken advantage of, and a new approach is worth trying."