Urgent Course Correction Needed for Biden

This was first posted in Asia Times.

Last week I suggested that getting along with China would be essential to making America better. I had Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden in mind when I wrote that commentary.

When I saw Biden’s first campaign TV spot positioning him to be a more emphatic China basher than Donald Trump, I was deeply troubled. Promptly, I did an e-mail blast to my friends with my piece attached urging them to forward it to Biden’s camp.

One friend was quick to react. He said he had contacted someone in Washington close to the Biden campaign and shown him my piece. That person said that if I made a sizable donation to the campaign, I could join in a Zoom videoconference and tell Biden personally.

‘Pay to play’ the rot of politics

I didn’t even bother to check on the minimum buy-in required. I don’t believe, and never have, that the exercise of democracy should be based on “pay as you go.”

A group of WeChat members, all first-generation immigrants to the US from the People’s Republic of China, read my piece and asked me to lead a discussion on how to support Biden. Yes, WeChat is an app from China, but participation is open to anyone.

First, I am going to tell them that they do not have to kiss up to the Biden camp. As an organized group of voters, they can expect to be heard. The bigger the group, the louder is their voice.

They should inform the Biden organizers that bashing China as a campaign issue has reached the point of diminishing return. Rather than a tired and worn-out subject, the pandemic is a real adversary for the US, and Trump’s response amply displays his ineptitude and incompetence. 

To win, just present facts on Trump

Every week, the Biden camp simply needs to compile and publish a list of falsehoods, failures to deliver, contradictions and position reversals from Trump to show the American people that he has been an abject failure as president.

By not savaging bilateral relations with China, Biden could be doing himself an important favor. Should he become the next president, he will be glad to have left a bridge open.

Also important for the group is to act as proud Chinese-Americans and not pretend to be aspiring white American wanna-bes. 

By throwing all sorts of accusations at China over the pandemic, the Trump administration has succeeded in convincing the less educated and ignorant segments of the population that Chinese-Americans are somehow responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic.                              

We resent being targets of bigotry and racist attacks. We should ask Biden to defend our civil rights vigorously and affirm that Chinese-Americans are a loyal and important part of American society.

If anyone wonders why we are making a big fuss over being racially profiled, that person obviously has never been a target of racism. Racial prejudice does not just come from Trump’s right wing, but from every corner, and is steeped in the history of American society. 

House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi was asked on CNBC why she does not use Zoom, the popular videoconferencing software, so that her colleagues can stay home and not become exposed to the virus that causes Covid-19.

Chinese-Americans are not ‘China’

Pelosi’s reply was that Zoom is a Chinese entity and can’t be trusted. In fact, although Eric Yuan, the chief executive officer and founder of Zoom, was originally from China, he is a naturalized American citizen. The company is based in Silicon Valley and listed on Nasdaq. 

She could have learned from a Bloomberg Businessweek cover article that Zoom has, well, zoomed in popularity while helping relatives and friends locked down at home to bridge their social distances.

At best, given Pelosi’s progressive reputation, her racial bias was just an autonomous reflex swayed by her decades of negative feelings for the People’s Republic of China.

As S B Woo, former lieutenant-governor of Delaware and founder of 80/20, points out in his latest mass-distribution letter, Chinese living in the US are being tarred by the animosity directed toward China. Ethnic Chinese, American citizens or not, have become targets of verbal and physical abuse.

Racists and bigots don’t bother to make, or are not capable of making, a distinction between a Chinese person or any other Asian. They are equal-opportunity hurlers of insults and stones.

Asian-Americans represent the fastest-growing ethnic group in the US and now total around 20 million. If they stand together, they are a viable political force to be reckoned with in many states and jurisdictions, where their collective presence is enough to swing an election.

When politicians call, they are only interested in soliciting a donation. Asian-Americans must stand tall and demand a pledge to protect their civil rights and ensure that they enjoy all the privileges that go with citizenship. 

No promise? No contribution.

A Chinese American idea for a better America

First posted on Asia Times

I am a proud Chinese-American and proud to have been nurtured by the best of both worlds. I am enriched by the culture and long history of my motherland and an America that offered me the opportunity to obtain a great education and live my American dream. 

Naturally I have great affection for everything Chinese, from folk tales to historical legends to great food. I am amazed at how quickly China has caught up to the modern world and deeply moved by the millions upon millions of people whom China has lifted out of poverty. 

Nevertheless, while I am proud of China’s accomplishments, what happens in China is not my business. I am an American citizen. My loyalty is with the US, and my vested interests and concerns rest with what my country will be like for my children and grandchildren.

Therefore, it’s time for me to take a look at how we can make America better if not great again. Since I have been thinking a lot about this matter, this is an opportunity to share my views with readers.

By the time we finally put the Covid-19 pandemic behind us, the US Federal Reserve will have printed multiple trillions of dollars, in essence out of thin air, to keep the economy going. 

I can’t predict how all this paper money not backed by any asset will eventually impact the American economy. There are plenty of distinguished economists studying whether and when we will face inflation, depression, stagflation, devaluation, or some combination thereof.

Suffice it for me to say that we can’t in good conscience spend beyond our means indefinitely and expect our grandchildren and their grandchildren to pick up the tab and bail out the economy. We have an obligation to reduce deficit spending now.

By the time we finally put the Covid-19 pandemic behind us, the US Federal Reserve will have printed multiple trillions of dollars, in essence out of thin air, to keep the economy going. I can’t predict how all this paper money not backed by any asset will eventually impact the American economy. There are plenty of distinguished economists studying whether and when we will face inflation, depression, stagflation, devaluation, or some combination thereof

Suffice it for me to say that we can’t in good conscience spend beyond our means indefinitely and expect our grandchildren and their grandchildren to pick up the tab and bail out the economy. We have an obligation to reduce deficit spending now.

This is where changing our policy toward China can make a huge difference. 

Making China our adversary has been a deliberate, conscious and bipartisan decision on our part. It has been largely an exercise of one hand clapping. Many have already presented arguments and analyses on why a deliberate collision course with China is unwarranted and not justified. My question: What is the point of picking a fight with China?

OK, so we don’t like China’s human-rights policy, and we don’t like its way of governing. Is that enough to threaten China and justify the cost of sending our aircraft carriers and battleships halfway around the world?

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, we were all looking forward to a peace dividend. Instead we overextended our resources by sending our troops around the world. Then we were shocked by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and responded by instigating a conflagration in the Middle East. Decades later we still can’t extricate ourselves: still burning cash, killing local civilians, and shipping body bags home.

Why would we want to start another war in another part of the world, specifically Asia? Some say the 20+ million people on Taiwan depend on our protection. In reality, Taiwan is more secure if the US military is not there to raise tension and spark conflict, accidentally or otherwise.It’s not as if the People’s Liberation Army is just champing to charge across the Taiwan Strait. In reality, without the presence of American military as a psychological crutch, Taiwan would be motivated to find a way to get along with the mainland and seek a permanent and secure accommodation.

During a global pandemic, sailing our naval ships around the world exposes our sailors to the danger of being trapped in hotboxes with no way of getting out. What’s in it for America to undertake such risks?

Any funds we don’t spend on weapons and troop deployments are funds available to improve schools for our children, shore up the bridges, pave the highways and put in a network of high-speed rail. What a difference such reallocation would make for the lives of the American people.

If the US and China could work together, we would be so much better off. A close collaboration of the leading scientific minds could lead to a quicker end to the pandemic and find a permanent therapy ready to face future mutations. That’s a real and significant benefit to the humankind.

Further, the most important and greatest long-term gain from collaboration is to stop the trade war. The pandemic on top of the tariff war that started last year has devastated the economies of both countries. Resumption of normal trade, going back to past booming business levels, will boost the economic recovery. Decoupling the world’s two largest economies would only sink both.

Since Bill Clinton, every aspiring US presidential candidate has accused the incumbent of being too soft on China, only to face the reality after taking the Oval Office that collaboration is the only way forward.

Donald Trump has been different. After being elected president, he has gone on to raise the tension by starting a trade war with the disastrous consequences that we are still feeling. Challenging Trump on being too soft on China won’t be believable.

Candidate Joe Biden needs to tell the American people that treating China as an enemy comes at a cost that we can’t afford, and it’s totally our choice if we opt not to go that way. For the benefit of our future generations, we need China and we need China to need us.

To paraphrase a popular commercial slogan: Getting along is priceless.

US faces a hard choice about China

First posted on Asia Times and ChinaUSFocus

American President Donald Trump lives by one dictum: He takes no responsibility. And therefore, he can’t make mistakes and thus is never wrong. Further, he expects unfailing and unconditional adoration. 

Many that aspire to serve in his administration have gone through the revolving door for failing to meet his perceived threshold of loyalty. This hasn’t just led to the coalescent of a coterie of obsequious men and women around him, but far more damaging, Trump has bent the integrity and besmirched the honor of America.

A case in point. Recently an open letterwas addressed to the White House urging the Trump Administration to turn from attacking to working with China. It was signed by 100 prominent China scholars and former government officials under the joint banner ofAsia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations & the 21st Century China Center at UC San Diego's School of Global Policy and Strategy.

100 urged Trump to work with China

The letter very sensibly points out that all the nations need to work together to battle a pandemic that knows no national boundaries. Specifically, it said, “No effort against the coronavirus – whether to save American lives at home or combat the disease abroad – will be successful without some degree of cooperation between the United States and China.”

“Some degree of cooperation,” the letter said is already a bit of equivocation, but the tiptoeing goes further. The letter reiterated the same Mike Pompeo accusations about China’s coverup, lack of transparency etc., as if these assertions had become fact through repetition by the current State Department, a department being led by a cabinet officer that draws heavily on his lie, cheat and stealCIA experience.

Many publications, including mine, have clearly established that Pompeo’s accusations of China are groundless. Fairness & Accuracy in Reportingsubsequently cited four prestigious medical and science-based journals that independently verified and supported China’s denial of any fudging of their reports.

A week later, FAIRgoes a step further and accuses the US State Department as the disseminator of fake information about the coronavirus; the very activity Pompeo has been accusing China of perpetrating. The post said, “There’s a patent irony here: The State Department is impugning enemies in order to distract from its own policy failures—exactly what it’s accusing those enemies of.”

At the April 2 press briefing at China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing, the Bloomberg reporter asked about the under reporting of Covid-19 fatalities from China, as alleged by three unnamed US intelligence officials. 

At the mention of “unnamed officials,” the Ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying arched her eyebrows and responded that it’s a waste of time get into the blame game with American politicians.

China challenged the US to do better

She cited the detailed timeline of events and developments that China had posted on the Internet, independently validated by a host of third-party organizations including the World Health Organization.

Ms. Hua then turned the tables and asked if the US were in China’s place, could they have done better, i.e., reacted faster and prevented fewer deaths? She reminded the Bloomberg reporter that Washington knew about the outbreak in early January. Yet as late as end of February, Trump still insisted that all public health announcements from the federal government funnel through Vice President Pence—hardly at the level of transparency the US demanded of China.

Not informing the American public about the threat of the pandemic is bad enough, but not preparing to take Covid-19 seriously until late Marchtakes away the moral authority for Trump to criticize any other country for negligence or lack of veracity.

Given Trump’s personality, it’s easy to understand why the open letter, signed by distinguished ex-public servants and seasoned experts on China, felt the need for an obligatory genuflect toward the false representations from the White House.

Take Dr. Anthony Fauci, for example. He enjoys world-wide reputation in his scientific expertise and experience in the treatment of infectious diseases. When pressed for an answer that the public would accept, Trump would yield the podium to Fauci—which happened at nearly every briefing, to offer science-based information that could reassure a panic-stricken nation

Even Fauci is careful to couch his words gingerly and diplomatically lest he trips on Trump’s minefield loaded with off the cuff falsehoods and ego driven distortions. While his longevity at NIH and past record of achievements might give him some job protection, Peter Navarroappears emboldened to lust after his job, envious of Fauci’s media star stature and banking on the credits of his undying loyalty to Trump.

Richard Grenell was so afraid of inadvertently making public statements that would anger Trump that he avoided appearing before the Congress to give testimony. He had just been appointed acting director of National Intelligence based on his credentials being slavishly loyal to Trump. Even so, Trump’s reputation had him quaking.

Trump is rude, crude and vindictive and he thrives on intimidation. At every White House briefing, he invariably hurls abusive insults at some hapless member of the press that offended him in some way. His persona has forced the mainstream media such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post to adjust by compromising some principles of journalism in order to maintain access and continuity.

His style not only has changed the way news is reported, it has changed the nature of public discourse. Twisting public opinion against China became one of the biases accomplished by his hardline followers. If your white paper, with the best intentions to serve the public, does not give lip service to some parts of his half-truths and fake facts, the paper will be ignored. That’s my explanation for the capitulating concession in the open letter.

Pompeo’s lie, cheat and steal diplomacy

Unfortunately, the pandemic not only has raised the tension between the two countries, the coronavirus has also brought out the worst side of Trump’s America. The world saw rather emphatically that Trump’s idea of “America first” meant brutish bullying of other countries, friend and foe alike. 

Just google “hijacking medical supplies,” and the reader would see a huge list of Internet complaints accusing FEMA and the US of outbidding and outright commandeering pallets of masks and gowns intended for other countries—in one case snatched from the tarmac—and diverted them to US bound planes. This is just one of the posts. Not for nothing that Pompeo’s third arm of diplomacy is “we steal.”

Any American with a sense of decency and fairness should feel embarrassed and ashamed.

The tragic case of aircraft carrier, USS Theodore Roosevelt, also calls for another fundamental adjustment in US foreign policy. The carrier departed from the home port of San Diego on January 17, stopped at Guam on February 7 and after a short stay sailed on to Da Nang in Vietnam docking there on March 5. Then matters got murky.

While the ship arrived in Da Nang, there were no known active Covid-19 cases in Vietnam. On March 8, two new cases of the virus appeared in Da Nang brought on by two British tourists. The ship departed from Da Nang the next day. The first sailor on the carrier diagnosed with Covid-19 was on March 22.

Which direction was the contagion transmitted, from Da Nang to the ship or from the ship to the Vietnamese? Given the normal 15-day incubation and typical asymptomatic contagious period of 5 days, the answer is not obvious without additional data to be taken from politically agnostic, science-based testing.

Rethinking ship deployment with pandemic

The US Navy also owes the American public another explanation. According to Defense One, on February 28, acting Secretary of Navy Thomas Modly ordered the 7^thfleet ships to self-quarantine by staying at sea for 14 days. Yet the Roosevelt proceeded to Da Nang and docked there on March 5. Why, asked Asia Times?

The order to stay at sea obviously stems from the catastrophe taking place on the cruise ship Diamond Princess. The Navy observed that when thousands of passengers and crew are on board a ship, disaster is just waiting for one sick person to trigger the contagion. The closer quarters on a navel ship is even more likely to incubate outbreaks.

Ordering the ships to remain at sea can be rationalized as a cynical command to see if any of the ships have asymptomatic sailors on board, i.e., if anyone becomes sick later while in quarantine.  As to why the Roosevelt continued on to Vietnam is a question waiting for the Navy to explain.

So long as the threat of Covid-19 remains palpable the Pentagon will need to recalculate the risk and reward of sending flotillas halfway around the world in the name of exercising the freedom of navigation on the South China Sea.

The danger for any ship while at sea, days and weeks away from land, is if an outbreak were to strike, the ship could cease to be combat able and may even just float dead in the water, depending on how fast the infection spreads over the ship. 

What should Joe Biden do?

Now that former vice president Joe Biden has become Trump’s presumptive opponent, it will be necessary for Biden and his campaign team to take a top to bottom evaluation on where various issues stand.

The Trump campaign has already fired the first volley, accusing Biden of being too close to China and not incidentally the campaign clip also took a xenophobic swipe at Americans that were of Chinese ancestry. The New York Times said, “The ad, which calls Joe Biden soft on China and falsely suggests a former governor of Washington is Chinese, shows that President Trump plans to continue exploiting racial discord in his re-election bid.”

The one-minute spot was loaded with cheap shots designed to mislead and fool the uninformed. As vice president, Biden made official visits to Beijing. Footage of his meeting with China’s president Xi Jinping suggested something unsavory and implied that then ambassador Gary Locke accompanying Biden was a Chinese official.

As the election campaign heats up, Biden can expect a piling on of TV spots that will accuse him of being in Beijing’s pocket. With Steve Bannon, a master of misdirection and misinformation, advising Trump’s campaign, being close to China will just be one of the issues Biden will have to deal with. 

What should Biden do to counter? Should he counter by arguing that he is as anti-China as Trump or even more rabid? Surely that would put him on the defensive and exercising a losing strategy.

Instead, Biden should articulate an approach with China as diametrically different from Trump as possible. Talk about lobal trade rather than tariff war, collaboration on battling the pandemic, joint leadership on climate change and mutual contribution to financial stability on the world. Those would be some of the major issues that expose Trump’s failure to deliver for the American people.

Biden’s job is to take a bold stand and explain to the voters that working with China will boost the global economy including the U.S. Conversely, by continuing on Trump’s trajectory of treating China as an adversary and decoupling from each other, the economy of both countries will shrink and assure a losing future for the people of America, and for the world.

Donald Trump flipflops through the pandemic

From AsiaTimes.

The latest news on President Donald Trump, America’s flipflop-in-chief, is that he had a good conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping. They agreed to battle Covid-19 together and Trump swore off referring to the “Chinese virus” from then on.

Of course, Trump has had a history of alternately praising and blasting China for the way it has dealt with the virus. Thus it remains to be seen as to how long his flip will last before he flops again.

Trump’s liar-in-chief and top diplomat, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, has not yet pulled up his reins but continues to attack China and insist that Beijing has covered up the reality of the coronavirus crisis. He has singlehandedly blocked any attempt at forming international solidarity to fight the contagion by insisting on naming the “Wuhan virus” as the cause of the pandemic. 

Pompeo has also been the point man for the Trump administration on driving the assertion that the US has been victimized by China’s coverup of the outbreak. Whether China actually covered up anything has become an increasingly harsh bone of contention between China and the US.

As I reported last week, Nature published a timeline of events related to the outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan and left no gaps that could have been the source of a communication blackout. There was perhaps a week to 10 days in early December when local officials wrestled to understand the sort of contagion they were facing and did not immediately file a report to Beijing.

No room for coverup

Had health officials in Wuhan known then what they learned later, the short interval of silence could have made a difference, but that pales in comparison with the months that followed. The entire world came to know about the looming pandemic, yet the Trump team sat on their hands and just worked on an orchestrated blame game.

This week, Asia-Review posted an even more detailed timeline. It said that on December 27, 2019, Dr Zhang Jixian, an ICU (intensive-care unit) doctor at Hubei Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, filed a report to the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission describing patients suffering from pneumonia of an unknown cause.

Three more patients entered the hospital the next day showing similar symptoms, and that set in motion the events reported in Nature and Asia-Review. Asia Review concluded: “China’s response to the outbreak of Covid-19 has been exceedingly transparent, swift, effective and life-saving. 

“However, the narrative has been hijacked by a few Western media outlets to propagate a coverup using nitpicked events that were twisted to fit their narrative.”

China set about doing the genetic sequencing of the novel coronavirus on January 9 and shared its finding of the genetic sequence with an international database on January 11. Hardly the action of a coverup.

The New York Times et al seem to base their accusations of China’s lack of transparency on the first half of December when nothing was said, but at that time the medical workers in Wuhan did not know what they had on their hands.

Then the West lionized Dr Li Wenliang as the heroic whistleblower unfairly suppressed by the Chinese authorities. What actually happened was that the trained ophthalmologist thought he had observed cases of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and shared his concern with his chat group. Wuhan police called him in on December 31 and gave him a cautionary reprimand, and Dr Li went back to work the same day. The Wuhan authorities subsequently and posthumously apologized to Li’s family.

Distraction from own incompetence

A companion posting by Asia-Review appears to have hit the nail of this controversy on its head. The headline says it all, “How the US used ‘Chinese virus’ as a distraction from their own incompetence.”

Consistency has never been a virtue with Trump but his views on how he is controlling Covid-19 are surprisingly unwavering. On January 22, he said, “We have it totally under control.” A month later on February 25, Trump said, “I think that’s a problem that’s going to go away.… In fact, we’re very close to a vaccine.” On March 8, “We have a perfectly coordinated and fine-tuned plan at the White House for our attack on Coronavirus.”

But despite Trump’s optimism, cases of infection in the US suddenly surged to the top of the world, exceeding even Italy and China. As the situation grew dire, it became clear that his fine-tuned plan did not include having stockpiles of ventilators or masks and personal protective equipment. He has endangered America’s health and safety.

On the one hand, Trump continues to disparage and question the needs of the state governors. Since he can’t meet their needs, that’s all he can do. On the other hand, he sees that China has become a generous and active provider of masks, ventilators, test kits, protective suits and other medical equipment to many countries in need.

Trump is no dummy. He sees that making nice with China is definitely in his interest. Now.

Just last week, Trump finally used the Defense Production Act to compel General Motors to make ventilators. He could have done so many weeks earlier but apparently had hoped to coax GM without invoking the act. To invoke the act was to admit that the epidemic was slipping out of his control, a major flipflop of embarrassing proportions. 

Peter Navarro to the rescue

On Friday, Trump announced the appointment of Peter Navarro, heretofore his disastrous China trade adviser, as the national Defense Production Act policy coordinator. Trump didn’t say much about Navarro’s duties but presumably getting GM to deliver ventilators in quantity and in a timely manner will be part of his mandate.

Navarro is known for his strong anti-China feelings and played a significant role in erecting the tariff barriers between the two countries. He is not known for success either as a politician or for management experience in the private sector. He is merely one of many Trump appointees without requisite qualifications.

This appears to be Navarro’s windfall dream job. He loves national TV exposure, any time he can get it. A day before his appointment, CNN had him on to explain the shortfall in ventilators. He started by praising Trump’s leadership to high heaven. Then he worked hard to cast blame on China. Finally, the exasperated CNN anchor cut him off by saying, “Peter, you are not answering the questions and wasting time.”

Despite the rude rebuff Navarro did not act offended but pleaded that he be given the time to talk and explain. His last-gasp remark before fading from the screen was that he would be pleased to come back any time to talk to CNN. 

When governors of New York, California, Texas and other states begin screaming for ventilators not delivered, Peter will get a lot of airtime to squirm under the national limelight. 

Trump is either unable or unwilling to face the explosion of the epidemic to come. He wants the country to go back to work, fill the subways, trains and buses, reopen the restaurants and forget about “social distancing” – and let’s not forget, regular church services by Easter. He thinks he is exempt from the laws of nature.

He will regret his decision to put the economy ahead of bringing the disease under control. He may understand the leverage of real-estate financing and the enhanced return by avoiding paying taxes, but he won’t have any place to turn when the exponential growth of infections overwhelms the hospitals.

When the number of the seriously ill exceeds the number of ventilators and beds in a hospital, the doctors will be forced to decide who gets to live and who will die.

The American public will demand answers and Trump will be ready: He’s “brilliant” and “capable” and it’s not his fault.

Not enough ventilators? Navarro will be the first to walk the plank. National public health in shambles? Vice-President Mike Pence must have screwed up. International prestige at a new low? Need to inject new blood as the secretary of state.

The pandemic will test Trump’s skill in spreading the blame. He is really good at it. Even his predecessor Barack Obama gets his share for not anticipating the coronavirus during his time in office. If Trump can sell that to the American voters, he will get four more years in the White House.

China set about doing the genetic sequencing of the novel coronavirus on January 9 and shared its finding of the genetic sequence with an international database on January 11. Hardly the action of a coverup.

The New York Times et al seem to base their accusations of China’s lack of transparency on the first half of December when nothing was said, but at that time the medical workers in Wuhan did not know what they had on their hands.

Then the West lionized Dr Li Wenliang as the heroic whistleblower unfairly suppressed by the Chinese authorities. What actually happened was that the trained ophthalmologist thought he had observed cases of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and shared his concern with his chat group. Wuhan police called him in on December 31 and gave him a cautionary reprimand, and Dr Li went back to work the same day. The Wuhan authorities subsequently and posthumously apologized to Li’s family.

Distraction from own incompetence

A companion posting by Asia-Review appears to have hit the nail of this controversy on its head. The headline says it all, “How the US used ‘Chinese virus’ as a distraction from their own incompetence.”

Consistency has never been a virtue with Trump but his views on how he is controlling Covid-19 are surprisingly unwavering. On January 22, he said, “We have it totally under control.” A month later on February 25, Trump said, “I think that’s a problem that’s going to go away.… In fact, we’re very close to a vaccine.” On March 8, “We have a perfectly coordinated and fine-tuned plan at the White House for our attack on Coronavirus.”

But despite Trump’s optimism, cases of infection in the US suddenly surged to the top of the world, exceeding even Italy and China. As the situation grew dire, it became clear that his fine-tuned plan did not include having stockpiles of ventilators or masks and personal protective equipment. He has endangered America’s health and safety.

On the one hand, Trump continues to disparage and question the needs of the state governors. Since he can’t meet their needs, that’s all he can do. On the other hand, he sees that China has become a generous and active provider of masks, ventilators, test kits, protective suits and other medical equipment to many countries in need.

Trump is no dummy. He sees that making nice with China is definitely in his interest. Now.

Just last week, Trump finally used the Defense Production Act to compel General Motors to make ventilators. He could have done so many weeks earlier but apparently had hoped to coax GM without invoking the act. To invoke the act was to admit that the epidemic was slipping out of his control, a major flipflop of embarrassing proportions. 

Peter Navarro to the rescue

On Friday, Trump announced the appointment of Peter Navarro, heretofore his disastrous China trade adviser, as the national Defense Production Act policy coordinator. Trump didn’t say much about Navarro’s duties but presumably getting GM to deliver ventilators in quantity and in a timely manner will be part of his mandate.

Navarro is known for his strong anti-China feelings and played a significant role in erecting the tariff barriers between the two countries. He is not known for success either as a politician or for management experience in the private sector. He is merely one of many Trump appointees without requisite qualifications.

This appears to be Navarro’s windfall dream job. He loves national TV exposure, any time he can get it. A day before his appointment, CNN had him on to explain the shortfall in ventilators. He started by praising Trump’s leadership to high heaven. Then he worked hard to cast blame on China. Finally, the exasperated CNN anchor cut him off by saying, “Peter, you are not answering the questions and wasting time.”

Despite the rude rebuff Navarro did not act offended but pleaded that he be given the time to talk and explain. His last-gasp remark before fading from the screen was that he would be pleased to come back any time to talk to CNN. 

When governors of New York, California, Texas and other states begin screaming for ventilators not delivered, Peter will get a lot of airtime to squirm under the national limelight. 

Trump is either unable or unwilling to face the explosion of the epidemic to come. He wants the country to go back to work, fill the subways, trains and buses, reopen the restaurants and forget about “social distancing” – and let’s not forget, regular church services by Easter. He thinks he is exempt from the laws of nature.

He will regret his decision to put the economy ahead of bringing the disease under control. He may understand the leverage of real-estate financing and the enhanced return by avoiding paying taxes, but he won’t have any place to turn when the exponential growth of infections overwhelms the hospitals.

When the number of the seriously ill exceeds the number of ventilators and beds in a hospital, the doctors will be forced to decide who gets to live and who will die.

The American public will demand answers and Trump will be ready: He’s “brilliant” and “capable” and it’s not his fault.

Not enough ventilators? Navarro will be the first to walk the plank. National public health in shambles? Vice-President Mike Pence must have screwed up. International prestige at a new low? Need to inject new blood as the secretary of state.

The pandemic will test Trump’s skill in spreading the blame. He is really good at it. Even his predecessor Barack Obama gets his share for not anticipating the coronavirus during his time in office. If Trump can sell that to the American voters, he will get four more years in the White House.

A companion posting by Asia-Review appears to have hit the nail of this controversy on its head. The headline says it all, “How the US used ‘Chinese virus’ as a distraction from their own incompetence.”

Consistency has never been a virtue with Trump but his views on how he is controlling Covid-19 are surprisingly unwavering. On January 22, he said, “We have it totally under control.” A month later on February 25, Trump said, “I think that’s a problem that’s going to go away.… In fact, we’re very close to a vaccine.” On March 8, “We have a perfectly coordinated and fine-tuned plan at the White House for our attack on Coronavirus.”

But despite Trump’s optimism, cases of infection in the US suddenly surged to the top of the world, exceeding even Italy and China. As the situation grew dire, it became clear that his fine-tuned plan did not include having stockpiles of ventilators or masks and personal protective equipment. He has endangered America’s health and safety.

On the one hand, Trump continues to disparage and question the needs of the state governors. Since he can’t meet their needs, that’s all he can do. On the other hand, he sees that China has become a generous and active provider of masks, ventilators, test kits, protective suits and other medical equipment to many countries in need.

Trump is no dummy. He sees that making nice with China is definitely in his interest. Now.

Just last week, Trump finally used the Defense Production Act to compel General Motors to make ventilators. He could have done so many weeks earlier but apparently had hoped to coax GM without invoking the act. To invoke the act was to admit that the epidemic was slipping out of his control, a major flipflop of embarrassing proportions. 

Peter Navarro to the rescue

On Friday, Trump announced the appointment of Peter Navarro, heretofore his disastrous China trade adviser, as the national Defense Production Act policy coordinator. Trump didn’t say much about Navarro’s duties but presumably getting GM to deliver ventilators in quantity and in a timely manner will be part of his mandate.

Navarro is known for his strong anti-China feelings and played a significant role in erecting the tariff barriers between the two countries. He is not known for success either as a politician or for management experience in the private sector. He is merely one of many Trump appointees without requisite qualifications.

This appears to be Navarro’s windfall dream job. He loves national TV exposure, any time he can get it. A day before his appointment, CNN had him on to explain the shortfall in ventilators. He started by praising Trump’s leadership to high heaven. Then he worked hard to cast blame on China. Finally, the exasperated CNN anchor cut him off by saying, “Peter, you are not answering the questions and wasting time.”

Despite the rude rebuff Navarro did not act offended but pleaded that he be given the time to talk and explain. His last-gasp remark before fading from the screen was that he would be pleased to come back any time to talk to CNN. 

When governors of New York, California, Texas and other states begin screaming for ventilators not delivered, Peter will get a lot of airtime to squirm under the national limelight. 

Trump is either unable or unwilling to face the explosion of the epidemic to come. He wants the country to go back to work, fill the subways, trains and buses, reopen the restaurants and forget about “social distancing” – and let’s not forget, regular church services by Easter. He thinks he is exempt from the laws of nature.

He will regret his decision to put the economy ahead of bringing the disease under control. He may understand the leverage of real-estate financing and the enhanced return by avoiding paying taxes, but he won’t have any place to turn when the exponential growth of infections overwhelms the hospitals.

When the number of the seriously ill exceeds the number of ventilators and beds in a hospital, the doctors will be forced to decide who gets to live and who will die.

The American public will demand answers and Trump will be ready: He’s “brilliant” and “capable” and it’s not his fault.

Not enough ventilators? Navarro will be the first to walk the plank. National public health in shambles? Vice-President Mike Pence must have screwed up. International prestige at a new low? Need to inject new blood as the secretary of state.

The pandemic will test Trump’s skill in spreading the blame. He is really good at it. Even his predecessor Barack Obama gets his share for not anticipating the coronavirus during his time in office. If Trump can sell that to the American voters, he will get four more years in the White House.