Navarro another blow to US-China ties
US president-elect Donald Trump is known for his anti-China rhetoric on the campaign trail, such as threatening to impose up to 45 percent tariffs on Chinese products and calling China a currency manipulator.
Yet when Trump named China-friendly Iowa Governor Terry Branstad to be the United States ambassador to China, and his senior advisor James Woolsey said Trump may consider joining the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Belt and Road Initiative (the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road), it momentarily seemed the president-elect may have started to see reason.
Wednesday, however, dampened that hope, as Trump nominated Peter Navarro to head the new White House National Trade Council. Trump's transition team described Navarro as a "visionary economist ... (who) will develop trade policies that shrink our trade deficit, expand our growth, and help stop the exodus of jobs from our shores".
