Economic war with China about to go to ‘another level,’ Steve Bannon says
Former White House chief strategist Steven Bannon, in his first interview since Chinese state TV declared him to be the true enemy of the U.S., said China is on edge. He believes the personal attacks on him are signs that they are in a total state of hysteria.
“It’s interesting,” he told FOX Business’ Trish Regan on Monday. “You know, both CCTV, which is the BBC of China, and also “The Global Times,” which is their tabloid of “The People's Daily,” which they used to attack -- I think this is the first time in living memory they have gone after a private citizen. That shows you how nervous they are.”
In Bannon’s opinion, China wasn’t ready for someone like Trump to call them out for cheating.
“They understand that President Trump fully gets the economic war that they’ve been running on the industrial democracies, particularly the United States, for 20 years. And they are in absolute shock that Donald Trump stood up to them,” he said, adding that “Trump's deal with Bob Lighthizer was a very well-thought strategic deal. They’re in panic.”
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Chinese President Xi and chief trade negotiator Liu He visited the country's rare earth mining base on Monday. In Bannon’s opinion this is a signal to the U.S. that “this economic war is about to go to another level.” Rare earth minerals are critical parts of some military and industrial products.
China toughened its stance on the U.S. recently, threatening to retaliate after Trump hiked tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese goods from 10 to 25 percent.