File:Trump Takes on China @ Basel Fasnacht Carnival (33449266302).jpg

"Many of my colleagues, even those from the Democratic Party, are in complete agreement with Trump’s former aide, Stephen K. Bannon, that the United States is in an economic war with China and that Americans have done far too much to facilitate your nation’s rise. Few would publicly admit this, but I believe it is true because many of them have told me so. What’s more, the American business community that once functioned as the ballast in the relations between our two countries no longer supports your nation like it used to. Too many companies have been burned while doing business in China.

So, as Lenin once asked, what is to be done? North Korea is the issue that will shape the relations between our two nations for a generation. Your country likes to say it’s America’s problem, but we believe it is yours. For decades, Chinese companies have played a key role in supporting North Korea’s economy and in abetting North Korea’s nuclear and missile program. This must stop. This looming crisis demands creative thinking, and not only on the part of the United States. Otherwise, the options become very bad very quickly. What would you do if Japan went nuclear? Or worse, if a war erupted on your border, not ours?

"China also needs to open up its markets to American firms and allow U.S. businesses the same freedom to invest in China that Chinese firms enjoy in the United States. Have you noticed that the U.S. Treasury Department has essentially stopped major Chinese investments from coming into the United States in recent months? Unless you begin to treat our companies more equally, this investment holiday will never end. What’s more, Chinese firms investing in the United States are not required to turn over their key technologies to an American partner. So why should American firms have to do this in China? Your nation has benefited for too long from these unfair rules. It’s time for them to be changed as well." John Pomfret November 8, 2017 John Pomfret, a former Washington Post bureau chief in Beijing, is the author of “The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to the Present.” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/democracy-post/wp/2017/11/08/some-frank-advice-for-president-xi/?utm_term=.2f64d6bb02bc" rel="nofollow">www.washingtonpost.com/news/democracy-post/wp/2017/11/08/...</a>

Meanwhile Mistrust of China Grows Elsewhere "Maybe when China trusts its own people enough to allow them to elect their own leaders we can look at it again." Most liked reader comment by Claudius_Pseudonymus on abc.net.au <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/06/world/australia/china-foreign-influence.html?_r=0" rel="nofollow">www.nytimes.com/2017/12/06/world/australia/china-foreign-...</a>