On the campaign trail, Donald Trump was very hard on China, accusing them of doing all sorts of nasty things to create the trade imbalance between the two countries (China and the U.S.). In May of 2016, Trump said:
"We can't continue to allow China to rape our country and that's what they're doing. It's the greatest theft in the history of the world."
He certainly changed his tune once face-to-face with Chinese leaders though. He said while in China:
"I don’t blame China. After all, who can blame a country for being able to take advantage of another country for the benefit of its citizens? I give China great credit."
One could say that Trump wimped out when facing the Chinese leaders, and that would be partially true. Trump is a blowhard who loves to denigrate from a distance. But it's also true that he lies a lot, and it's a lot harder to lie about someone when facing them in person.
China is not blameless in the question of trade balances, but they are not the ones most guilty of that unbalanced trade. And neither are previous administrations (who Trump blamed while in China). The real culprits, the ones most guilty, are the corporations who ship American jobs to China (and other low-wage countries) -- and the Republicans in Congress who give them a tax break for doing that. Trump's own companies (and Ivanka's) are guilty of doing this, and must accept some of the responsibility.
But Trump won't blame himself or other greedy corporations. For him, there is always someone else to blame (even if they are truly innocent).
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