Markets have gone into a tailspin in August after two years of stellar performance over fears that a worsening trade relationship between the U.S. and China could lead to a global recession.
Trump national finance committee member former State Representative Perry O. Hooper Jr., R-Montgomery, warned that China has set a course to replace the U.S. as the number one economic power in the world. Hooper said that the tariffs are working and that the U.S. should stay the course.
“Since the US paved the way for China to join the World Trade Organization in 2001 the establishment in Washington assured us that China would begin behaving like a good “Global Citizen,”” Hooper said. “Instead of access to a billion Chinese consumers as the establishment promised, the United States lost more than 5 million manufacturing jobs since 2000 through multiple presidential administrations — Clinton, Bush and Obama, who naively looked the other way.”
Congressman Gary Palmer expressed his own concerns about China and the “trade war” at a recent town hall in Chelsea.
“The so called-trade war we are in China is not really about trade,” Rep. Palmer said. “Xi (Jinping) believes he is the anointed one to fulfill the 100-year plan implemented by Mao (Zedong) in 1949. Their objective is not to become an economic power or a superpower; but to become the dominant global power.”
“China has emerged as the greatest economic and national security threat the United States has ever faced.” Hooper warned. “They have set a course to replace the US as the number one economic power in the world by any means necessary.”
“In the current trade talks, China must agree to end forced technology transfers, intellectual property theft, cyberintrusions into business networks, currency manipulation, high tariff and nontariff barriers, unfair subsidies to state-owned enterprises and illegal dumping of their products into our markets,” Hooper added. “President Trump is not negotiating a deal between two similar systems seeking closer ties, as its globalist cheerleaders on Wall Street and in the media and academia try to convince us. Rather, this is a fundamental clash between two radically different economic models.”
Farmers have been particularly hard hit by the trade difficulties with China. China used to buy half of the American soybean crop. Now they buy from Brazil and Argentina and the price of American soybeans are down over 15 percent. Many farmers fear that the Chinese market is lost to us permanently.
Hooper told APR that the farmers will be better off in the long run if the President continues his policies.
“Anything less than a great deal will subject the president to relentless criticism from Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer and the cadre of Democratic presidential candidates,” Hooper said. “For these reasons, the president’s best political option is not to surrender, but rather to double down on the tariffs — they have been highly effective in pressuring the Chinese without harming the U.S. economy.”
APR asked about the growing recession fears by many pundits and market watchers.
Hooper said that those are liberal Democrats who are trying to “talk a recession into existence.”
“The central issues that must be faced are China’s intentions on the world stage and what those ambitions mean for U.S. prosperity,” Hooper said.
Rep. Palmer said a the town hall event that the Chinese have stolen our intellectual property, they have infiltrated our universities, they have control of the Panama Canal. The largest telecom company in South America is owned by a Chinese businessman.
“China is trying to create markets that will shut the U.S. out,” Palmer said. China produces more steel than the rest of the world produces combined. “China is try8ng to put us in a very bad place economically.”
“Chinese state capitalism is highly profitable for its owners — the members of the Chinese Communist Party,” Hooper said. “State-owned and supported companies gain a competitive edge through massive government subsidies and the cost savings won by stealing the intellectual property, technology and innovations of foreigners; especially Americans.”
Hooper insisted that the President should continue his current course.
“With our country at a crossroads, it is more important than ever that Trump follow his instincts and not soften his stance against the greatest economic threat ever faced by the United States,” Hooper stated.
Hooper is a member of the Alabama Republican Executive Committee and was the Chair of the 2016 Trump Victory fund. Hooper is exploring running for the open Second Congressional District seat. Incumbent Martha Roby, R-Montgomery, is not seeking a sixth term.
