Why China Is Retreating As Fast As It Can

As President Trump brings manufacturing back to the US — and closes in on trade deals with India, Japan, and South Korea — China’s days as “the world’s factory floor” are numbered.  And Beijing is furious. 

In a move harking back to the Cultural Revolution, Chinese schoolchildren are again being taught to hate the US. Class time is devoted to shouting anti-American slogans like “China must win the China-US trade war!”

China’s foreign ministry even released a video claiming that China “won’t kneel down” to the US, warning that bowing to US hegemony would be like drinking poison. At the BRICS meeting in Rio this week, Foreign Minister Wang Yi talked tough as well: “Silence or retreat will only embolden bullies.”

But it turns out that — in secret — Beijing has been quietly retreating as fast as it can.