Xi Jinping Urges Dialogue, Not Confrontation, After Trump Seeks Tariff
NEW YORK TIMES (April 11, 2018). :… Mr. Xi also pledged to rebuff efforts to impose barriers to world trade, saying that “China’s door of opening up will not be closed and will only open up even wider.”
He highlighted areas where China was willing to give, including pledging to ease restrictions on imported cars by the end of the year as well as repeating open-ended promises to give foreigners greater access to the country’s financial markets — promises officials have made in the past. He also pledged to strengthen intellectual property rights, addressing one of Mr. Trump’s main complaints.
By Robert Field
I heard that MSNBC ratings are up 30% for the year. CNN was said to be up about half that amount and FOX was supposedly down a bit. I have not independently verify the information.
If true, tthis is a big gain for MSNBC, but is it at the expense of compromising standards and chasing FOX down into the reporting sewer pit’?
I am an early riser and make a special effort to be up with coffee and an oat meal / raisin cookie by 6:00 AM to catch MSNBC’s Morning Joe. But now after suffering through the first few minutes of professed outrage about whatever President Donald Trump has said or done, I turn to CNN.
It is one thing not to like President Trump and to think many of the things he says and has done are self serving, narcissistic, mistaken, and possibly dangerous. But that doesn’t mean that everything he proposes shouldn’t be judged on its own merits.
An example is the alleged “trade war” he reportedly has started. It is common knowledge that China took a leaf from the book that Japan wrote decades ago and has been pilfering proprietary information from American companies and other Western nation. Companies trying to do business in China face obstacles and exploitation. Moreover, China, taking the long view, subsdizes and otherwise supports industries that will enable China to dominate future world trade. So shouldn’t we be more circumspect about potential gains from standing up to China rather than spotlighting every industry and company that will suffer in the short run without weighing the potential long term benefits for our nation?
And should we just wring our hands and do nothing about North Korea’s growing capacity to launch an atomic attack on mainland USA?
The answer to those questions is “I don’t know.” But neither does Joe Scarborough at MSNBC. He and Mikka Brzezinski should at least be open to all possibilities and not jump with a denunciation the moment that Trump says or does anything. The first kid in the class with his / her hand up doesn’t necessarily have the correct answer.
I want news. I want facts. I don’t want knee-jerk conservative or liberal attitudes aimed at pleasing a core audience.
But again, MSNBC’s ratings are reportedly up 30%. And like LNP, they are there to make a profit.
