Donald Trump Says His Administration Has Taken Toughest Ever Action On China

While addressing an election rally in Ohio on Friday, President Donald Trump said that the US government has taken the toughest-ever action to take down on China’s alleged unfair trade practices.

“We have taken the toughest-ever action to crack down on China’s unfair trade actions and trade abuses,” Trump said to his supporters.

The US President has been levying tariffs on Chinese exports to the country since June. So far, the Trump administration has imposed tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods, affecting more than 5,000 products. The huge tariff was imposed to make Chinese products more expensive and encourage the sale of American products.

On Thursday, The Trump administration announced that it would restrict exports of civilian nuclear technology to China which officials claim is being diverted by Beijing to power new generations of Chinese aircraft carriers, submarines, and floating nuclear power plants.

The export restriction announcement followed Trump’s recent comments that claimed that China has lived too well for too long at Americans’ expense and now the situation needs to change.

“They lived too well for too long and, frankly, I guess they think that the Americans are stupid people,” Trump said. “Americans are not stupid people.”

But, surprisingly, despite Trump’s tariff strategy, China’s trade surplus with the United States has reportedly widened to a record $34.1 billion in September as exports to the U.S. market rose by 13 percent as compared to last year.

According to customs data released by China’s customs agency on Friday, China’s imports of U.S. goods decreased to 9 percent over a year earlier. China’s overall global exports increased 14.5 percent as compared to 2017, up from August’s 12.2 percent growth. Imports, on the other hand, grew 14.3 percent, down from 20.9 percent.

The latest import-export data prove that the trade war which was supposed to benefit America isn’t doing the same.