[오피니언] “무역협상서 지연전술..중국 경제에 불행 초래할 것”

트럼프 대통령이 미국 노동자와 기업을 위해 중국과 무역전쟁을 벌이는 가운데, 중국의 공산정권은 2020년 제46대 미국 대통령에 조 바이든 민주당 후보가 당선되기를 바라고 있다고 이 글의 저자는 주장한다.
저자에 따르면, 중국은 클린턴 행정부 당시 대륙간탄도미사일을 완성하는 등 미국을 교묘히 이용하며 이득을 취했지만, 이런 수법은 트럼프 행정부에는 통하지 않는다. 트럼프는 인위적으로 환율을 떨어뜨리는 중국을 환율조작국으로 지정하고 내달부터 3천억달러 규모의 중국산 수입품에 대해 10% 신규관세를 부과하기로 했다.
반면 민주당 대선 후보들은 정반대 대중정책을 약속하고 있다. 중국 공산정권은 민주당 후보들, 특히 바이든을 선호하는데, 그가 친중노선을 걸으며 중국 수뇌부와 뒷거래를 해오고 있기 때문이라는 게 저자의 설명이다.
바이든 부통령 시절, 그의 아들이 중국에서 큰 사업을 벌였고 2013년에는 중국 정부의 도움으로 10억 달러 사모펀드를 운용했다는 언론보도도 있다.
열렬한 중국 지지자인 바이든이야말로 중국 공산정권이 가장 좋아하는 미국 대선 후보라고 이 글을 쓴 미 육군 예비역 대령이자 전직 정보부 장교였던 토니 샤퍼 런던정책연구센터장은 지적한다.

Commentary

China already knows who it wants in the Oval Office after the 2020 election—his name is Beijing Joe Biden. Well, anyone with a “D” after their name would do, but “Beijing Joe” is their preferred candidate.

China hasn’t had it easy under President Trump, who came into office vowing to renegotiate harmful, outdated trade deals that put U.S. workers at a disadvantage for far too long. The new Trump trade doctrine rewards countries that agree to genuinely free and fair trade agreements, but applies strategic counter-tariffs on those that refuse to stop exploiting American workers and businesses.

China has unquestionably been the most egregious and persistent offender, so naturally China has also faced some of the heaviest pressure to mend its ways. No doubt bad U.S. trade policy has encouraged China’s bad habits and enabled its acquisition (during the Clinton administration) of technology that helped it perfect itS intercontinental nuclear missiles. Now is the time for the bad habits and reckless behavior by China to end.

Earlier this year, after China reneged on several of its previous commitments, the president announced that this pressure will gradually intensify unless Beijing shows that it’s willing to negotiate in good faith. Despite granting a temporary reprieve as part of a one-on-one agreement with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Trump regrettably had to announce that China is once again acting duplicitously, forcing him to renew the imposition of new tariffs.

“Trade talks are continuing, and during the talks the U.S. will start, on September 1st, putting a small additional Tariff of 10% on the remaining 300 Billion Dollars of goods and products coming from China into our Country,” he recently tweeted.

Make no mistake, this is not a good development for China—the regime’s economy is currently struggling under the strain of the existing tariffs, recently posting its slowest economic growth in nearly three decades. Additional tariffs are only going to make that bad situation worse.

But China seems to be gambling that the 2020 presidential election will offer a solution to its problems: whereas President Trump is pressuring the communist regime to stop stealing technology from American firms, the Democrat candidates are vowing to reverse every aspect of his approach to trade.

While all of the Democrats would undoubtedly give China the tariff reprieve it seeks, Beijing Biden is their real favorite. Not only does he offer the most consistently pro-China policies, but he also has a long history of backroom dealing with communist Chinese leaders, so they already know that he would be a compliant president.

In fact, recent reports suggest that Beijing Biden’s son did big business in China while his dad was vice president, securing a $1 billion private equity deal in 2013 with the help of the communist government. Biden reportedly even helped to facilitate the negotiations, flying his son to China aboard Air Force Two just days before the business deal was concluded.

Biden, who once cavalierly dismissed China as a serious competitor, hasn’t let up on his soft-on-China rhetoric since.

The policies Beijing Biden talked about during the debate would benefit China in the long run while crippling the U.S. economy, putting us in an even worse position than before Trump was elected to clean up the mess left by Biden’s old boss. Sadly, the former vice president seems to be completely oblivious to the threat China poses—earlier this year, he declared that the Chinese are “not bad folks,” insisting that the communist regime is “not competition” for the U.S. economy.

Beijing Biden isn’t the only Democrat presidential candidate who is weak on China, of course—as Trump noted at his recent rally in Cincinnati, China would be happy with pretty much anyone else but him in the White House.

Donald Trump is right—China will be rooting hard for the Democrat candidate in 2020, and Beijing Joe Biden is by far their favorite son.

Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer is a retired senior intelligence operations officer and President of the London Center for Policy Research.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

*이 기사는 저자의 견해를 나타내며 에포크타임스의 편집 방향성과 일치하지 않을 수도 있습니다.