One of the rare areas of agreement between presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump is that the U.S. must fight back hard against China's manipulation of its currency.
But it is likely to be a much more awkward issue for Clinton in the fall, because the Obama administration's position is that China doesn't manipulate its currency. The Democratic front-runner will have to distance herself from Obama and the establishment Democratic position on the issue even though she served as secretary of state.
The issue has been on the front-burner throughout the race. Trump, unsurprisingly, has been the most bombastic on the subject.
"We can't continue to allow China to rape our country," the presumptive Republican nominee told a crowd in Fort Wayne just before Indiana's May 3 primary elections. "That's what they're doing. It's the greatest theft in the history of the world."
Trump is fairly obsessed with the issue. He has cited it as a reason to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a proposed trade deal involving 12 Pacific Rim nations the administration has negotiated, even though China is not part of the deal. The U.S. cannot open up trade with countries in the region as long as China manipulates its currency, he argues.
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12.24.2024