"Trump Won't Back Down": Bannon Warns Trade-War Will Be "Unbearably Painful" For China

Steve Bannon - who claims to have helped President Trump draft the battle plan for the ongoing trade war, says that Trump's strategy is to make the conflict "unprecedentedly large" and "unbearably painful" for Beijing, according to an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post.

The ultimate goal, says Bannon - is not just to force China to give up its "unfair trade practices," but to "re-industrialize America" since manufacturing used to be the core of the nation's power. Bannon also criticized the "Made in China 2025" plan for Beijing to catch up with the West in 10 key tech sectors - saying that Chinese firms were relying in generous government support to reduce future technological reliance on the West.

Bannon, who claimed to have helped Trump draw up the trade war plan, said that in the past, tariffs had been limited to imports of between roughly US$10 billion and US$30 billion but the sheer magnitude of the more than US$500 billion in question this time had “caught Beijing off guard”.

“It’s not just any tariff. It’s tariffs on a scale and depth that is previously inconceivable in US history,” Bannon said.

He said Beijing had relied on “round after round of talks” to take the momentum out of the US punitive measures, but the delaying tactics would not work.

“They always want to have a strategic dialogue to tap things along. They never envisioned that somebody would actually do this.” -SCMP

Bannon says he and Trump were convinced that the US would win a trade war, and that Chinese elites were worried about the same, with "so many senior Chinese officials exhausting all channels" in order to move their money out of China and snap up West Coast and New York real estate.

"Why [does there have] to be massive capital controls placed on Chinese money? Otherwise all will flee to midtown Manhattan … They want to buy real assets in the US. That shows you a dramatic lack of confidence in their own economy."

Bannon says he first discussed the idea of a trade war five years ago with then-senator Jeff Sessions, and that the plan to crush Beijing in trade had been at the top of their campaign strategy.

“This is where Jeff Sessions and I sat in 2013 as we were trying to imagine what the 2016 presidential election would look like,” Bannon said in his “Breitbart Embassy” townhouse near the Capitol Building in Washington. “We made trade the top issue, when trade was not even among the top 100 issues of the others.” -SCMP

While Trump and Bannon have had a public falling out since his January firing - with the President criticizing the former Breitbart executive chairman for letting journalist Michael Wolff into the White House for material on his book Fire and Fury, the President and Bannon were back in contact in May according to the Wall Street Journal.

During his first meeting with Trump in 2015, both men agreed that the Washington and Wall Street establishment would "side with China" in the upcoming trade war, and that the two decided to alter the international trade regime to "dramatically reduce [the US] trade defecit" and re-industrialize America; particularly in the so-called rust belt.

Bannon added that Trump would "never back down in the trade war [with China]" despite anticipating that the policy would face "massive resistance domestically and internationally" because of "Western elites" who are working with China to make themselves rich.

"Our factories got shipped out of here. Wall Street made a fortune. The private equity made a fortune. Right now President Trump’s focus is on stopping it," said Bannon.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-09-21/trump-wont-back-down-bannon-warns-trade-war-will-be-unbearably-painful-china

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"No You Can't" - Broad Coalition Rallying Against Obama Center

Here’s something you don’t see every day: Chicago’s progressive Reader aligned with conservative Breitbart. Both had articles Wednesday slamming the Obama Center to be built in Chicago’s Jackson Park.

And everybody in between, it seems, is upset with the proposed center for one reason or another.

The community organizer has managed to inspire unusual unity:

Fiscal conservatives worried about our insolvent state object to how some $200 million was quietly appropriated in Illinois’ recently enacted budget for roadways around the center. Federal taxpayers will reimburse Illinois for 80% of that money, which was the subject of our recent Wall Street Journal article.

Local folks have long objected, claiming the Obama Foundation, which is building the center, isn’t directing enough jobs and benefits towards them. No surprise. When I visited the site a few weeks ago it looked like most of the work was being done by the usual Chicago union white guys. The Nation earlier criticized the absence of some form of community benefits agreement.

Many University of Chicago graduates, who serve as de facto guardians of the architectural and intellectual standards of the neighborhood, don’t want a scar on the area. Some are behind the federal lawsuit now pending to stop construction.

Believers of the rule of law say statutes were trampled on to cram authorization through, which is outlined in the legal complaint.

First Amendment hawks like me object to use of taxpayer money and exceptionally valuable land for what will be a political training camp in part. A First Amendment claim is part of the lawsuit.

Environmentalists and conservationists were particularly infuriated to see pictures of mature trees being mowed down for the center on land that’s supposed to be permanently dedicated as parkland.

And everybody just seems fed up with all the lying, including the federal judge. It was originally pitched as privately funded, presidential library, but it’s neither. Recently, the city got the judge to allow it to continue mowing down trees on the parkland site based on the city’s claims that its work was separate from the center. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed a motion saying the city basically lied about that. Before that motion would be heard, the city turned tail and agreed to halt its work.

The judge, apparently unhappy with the city’s conduct, said Thursday he was “disappointed” with what it had represented to the court, and proceeded to issue an order helping the activists seeking to block the center. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, he set the next court hearing for Oct. 24, which will allow the activists to make a presentation to the judge before the City Council votes on the project — and they can use the discovery process to force the city to reveal information.

That City Council vote will be on a new ordinance that would, among other things, ratify a 99-year lease of the parkland for total rent of $10. The proposed ordinance basically puts lipstick on a pig, as opponents see things.

See the rebuttal to the ordinance below by Herb Caplan, one of the University of Chicago grads behind the lawsuit.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-09-21/no-you-cant-broad-coalition-rallying-against-obama-center