Trump, Xi and ZTE

Yesterday, on Fox News Sunday Chris Wallace interviewed Peter Navarro, the Trump administration leading trade hawk.

Most people are focusing on Navarro’s rather harsh remarks about Canadian Prime Minister Justin Bieber. For my part I took special interest in his answer to a question about China’s ZTE.

Why, Wallace asked, did Trump want to try to save the Chinese telecommunications conglomerate from the weight of U. S. sanctions?

It’s easy, Navarro calmly explained, Trump was grateful to China’s President Xi Jinping for facilitating a summit with North Korea and Trump wanted to return the favor. It was a simple quid pro quo, the kind that businessmen do all the time.

Wallace looked shocked. Readers of this blog were not surprised. They read it here first. Links here and here.