Trump administration is turbocharging efforts to bring manufacturing out of China.

Chinese shipping crates in Germany. Reuters.

The Trump administration is turbocharging efforts to bring manufacturing out of China. Reuters. President Trump has long harped on China and bringing manufacturing out of the country was a priority even before the Coronavirus pandemic. The Trump administration is working with international partners to bring manufacturing out of China and back to America or to friendly nations like India, Japan and Vietnam, among many others. President Trump is also considering other measures for punishing China for the outbreak, including a raise on tariffs (which are already as high as 25%) or recognizing Taiwan, which China considers a rouge province. 

My Comment:

I think the China does deserve the anger it is getting. That anger is global and is justified by the fact, at the very least, the Chinese government lied to America and the world about the severity of the virus. And it's looking extremely likely that the virus itself escaped from one of the viral labs in the city of Wuhan. Either way, China could have done a lot more to prevent the outbreak. 

The outbreak laid bare a lot of the problems with outsourcing jobs and importing goods. Our medical system was largely dependent on imports from China for drugs and medical PPE. Indeed, we still depend on China to provide things like facemasks for us. Had the outbreak been more severe in China we could have been cut off from these supplies entirely. 

The outbreak also did a lot of economic damage and it doesn't make sense to not try and get back some of these jobs that have been outsourced over the years. With almost 30 million people out of work it makes a lot of sense to bring some of those jobs home. 

Some of these jobs aren't going to come back to the United States. Other countries, like India, Vietnam, South Korea and even South American countries will get some of these jobs as well. That's not as good as bringing these jobs home but it will lessen the damage from having all of our eggs in one Chinese basket. 

This is a national security issue as well. China is our #1 political foe and there is a very good chance that we will be at war with them at some time in the future. It makes zero sense to have so much of our economy tied up with a country that could betray us at anytime. 

And there is a good argument for not relying on one country alone for our needs under any circumstances. The political problems we have with China are nothing compared to the various threats national disasters could pose. A major disaster in China could currently destroy our economy along with ours, but if we spread things around we will be better able to survive any problems that China will cause. 

As expected China isn't taking this lying down. They seem to being a two pronged counter move against the United States. They have been doing a PR campaign, and have been giving out supplies to other countries. This has been somewhat effective but has been tempered by the fact that some of these supplies are less than useless or even contaminated. 

The other part of the offensive is to use their useful idiots in the media and the Democratic Party here in the United States to both bash President Trump and overhype the disease. They want President Trump gone and for all the noise about Russia interfering with the 2016 elections, I get the feeling that China will be going all out to try and do the same thing in 2020. They also want to make sure that our lockdowns last as long as possible in order to do as much economic damage as possible. 

I am glad that America and other countries are fighting back. China has never been a friend to us since the Communist revolution and it's about time we stopped basing our economy on them. If we have to pay slightly higher prices for our goods, I think it's well worth it.