Navarro still up to his anti-China tricks: China Daily editorial

Peter Navarro, the White House's top trade advisor, is no stranger to controversy, or to deception and lies in pursuit of his agenda.

In September 2023, Navarro was found guilty on two counts of contempt of Congress due to his role in promoting claims of election fraud and his alleged involvement in a plan to delay Congress' certification of the 2020 election results. While serving as trade advisor during Donald Trump's first term, it was revealed that he fabricated a fake "China expert" named "Ron Vara" — a play on his own last name — to support his call for the US to wage an aggressive trade war against China.

"When Navarro describes himself as ruthless, unscrupulous and a liar, he should be taken at his word", a commentary in Los Angeles Times said in June 2022. So it should come as no surprise that he is again resorting to lies in an attempt to attack China, this time in a bid to disrupt the cooperative relations between the United Kingdom and China.

In an interview with The Telegraph on the weekend, he accused the UK of becoming a "compliant servant of communist China", and warned that it was at risk of having its blood sucked dry by Beijing. The UK government must resist "string-laden gifts" from Beijing and avoid becoming a "dumping ground" for goods that China can no longer sell to the US, Navarro said.

His remarks come at a time when the US is finding itself increasingly isolated as a result of the tariff war it has launched against China and the rest of the world, which in no small part has been driven by Navarro's long-discredited advocacy for such offensive protectionist measures.

This is not the first time Navarro has tried to pressure countries to choose a side by means of anti-China fearmongering. In February he claimed Australia's aluminium sector is controlled by Chinese entities. An allegation that Canberra refuted by saying it had no basis in fact. Yet the US administration values Navarro's hard-line anti-China stance and aggressive trade policies not his allegiance to the truth, so Navarro has the license to say whatever he likes so long as it aligns with the administration's aims.

His bloodsucking vampire rhetoric will no doubt appeal to the China hawks in Washington, but nothing could be further from the truth, especially given exchanges in all fields between China and the UK have been gaining momentum since the Labour government took office in July 2024.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said his country is committed to building a "consistent, durable and respectful" relationship with China, and high-level British officials including Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves have made high-profile visits to China in recent months as part of the UK government's drive for "pragmatic reengagement" with Beijing. In fact, Reeves made it clear earlier this year that a healthy relationship with China is "squarely in our national interest", as "reengagement with China" would deliver a boost of up to 1 billion pounds ($1.32 billion) for the British economy.

The UK is China's third-largest trading partner in Europe, as well as the country's third-largest investment destination and third-largest source of foreign investment from Europe, while China is the UK's largest trading partner in Asia. In 2024, bilateral trade reached $98.36 billion, marking a year-on-year increase of 0.4 percent, a hard-earned result given the downward pressure on world trade. And, as of July 2024, two-way investment between China and the UK stood at $57 billion.  

Navarro's statements are often provocative. But they are geared to overcoming his lack of empirical evidence and his failure to provide a comprehensive analysis of the consequences of his proposed policies. It is actually quite remarkable that Navarro, the so-called architect of the White House's tariff policies, is still peddling his mendaciousness in the corridors of power, even after his approach to trade and economic policy has so thoroughly compromised the US economy.