Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping shake hands ahead of their bilateral meeting during the G20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan, June 29, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
President Donald Trump’s foreign policy is helping China at the expense of Americans, according to an editorial from one of America’s premiere right-leaning publications.
“Iran’s regime hasn’t hid its intentions for the Strait of Hormuz: Iranian ownership, with passage by toll and permission,” wrote The Wall Street Journal, which has previously criticized Trump for being soft on China, in a Monday editorial. “The regime claims its memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the U.S. gives it that right, and it has used force to get its way. The latest step is an admission that ‘friendly’ nations such as China could get special treatment in the international waterway.”
The editorial board added that Iran’s Ambassador to China said that that nation, along with others considered to be friends to Iran, may be given “special considerations” even as the Iranian government plans on charging “service fees” to all countries that go through the Strait.
“That isn’t the free passage or open Strait that President Trump and Vice President JD Vance have hailed as their deal’s key achievement,” the Journal wrote. “But read carefully, the MOU commits Iran to charging no tolls ‘for 60 days only’ and empowers it ‘to define the future administration and maritime services in the Strait’ in dialogue with Oman.”
Even though Trump is eager to end the Iran war and move on from it, the Journal’s editors argued that Iran’s actions will make that impossible for the American people.
“While Mr. Trump seeks to move on from the conflict, Iran’s regime is still fighting to be able to decide day-by-day and ship-by-ship which nations receive fuel shipments on time,” the Journal wrote. “Having resurrected its oil weapon in wartime, Iran now seeks to launder it into peacetime.”
They concluded, “Iran’s grant of favored passage to China underscores that the axis of U.S. adversaries continues to work together to the detriment of U.S. interests. Tehran depends on Beijing to buy its oil and reconstitute its missile program. Moscow sends military hardware and intelligence in exchange for mass-produced Iranian drones and munitions. An Iranian-owned Strait could well grant free passage—for them.”
This is not the Journal’s only claim that Trump is helping China at America’s expense. In February they blasted the president for firing the AI firm Anthropic from its defense contracts on the grounds that it will give China a competitive advantage.
“President Trump on Friday banned Anthropic and its AI products from all government contracts, and the Communists must be cheering in Beijing,” the Journal wrote. “The Administration is making what is a modest dispute over the military uses of AI into a self-destructive show of brute political force that will hurt the U.S. military and the rest of the government.”
Similarly, in January the Journal reported that Trump investigating then-Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell would help China at America’s expense.
"The criminal investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell is being viewed globally as an effort by the Trump Administration to wrest control of monetary policy from the central bank," reported Journal reporter Rory Jones. "That, according to some economists, risks damaging investor confidence in the U.S. financial system and the dollar, just as China is expanding use of its own currency around the world…. China's push to globalize its own currency — recently given renewed importance by Beijing in a five-year policy plan — has already alarmed officials in Washington."
He continued, "Before entering office, President Trump warned about China's push to globalize the yuan and has since threatened tariffs on the Brics bloc of emerging-market countries — which includes China — should they create an alternative to the dollar. Wider use of the yuan could also allow adversaries to avoid the scrutiny of the dollar-based financial system."