https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-says-china-owned-us-until-he-took-office_5344058.html?
Former president Donald Trump said his administration was not “owned” by communist China, unlike many of its predecessors.
“They owned us. Until I came along, they just owned every president, including the presidents I like,” Trump said about China in an interview with Fox News’s Brett Baier aired on June 19.
The former president pointed to his record of slapping tariffs on hundreds of billions’ worth of Chinese goods and having China sign a trade deal in January 2020. If elected president in 2024, Trump said he would maintain the China tariffs.
“I would keep the China tariffs on,” Trump said. “Absolutely. It is a tremendous power thing.”
Unlike his predecessors, who pursued a policy of engagement with China, Trump decided to confront the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) head-on, pushing back against its malign and hostile behaviors.
Trump began hitting China with tariffs after a U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) investigation in 2018 found that the communist regime was engaging in illegal practices, including excessive government subsidies and intellectual property theft. Beijing retaliated by slappings tariffs on U.S. goods before the two sides signed a trade deal in January 2020.