Why Trump Faces a Losing Tech War Against China
In this Bloomberg Originals mini-documentary, we show how the president-elect’s planned trade salvos may not have the effect he intends.
When Donald Trump ran for president back in 2016, one of the chief targets of his ire was China and what he considered its unfair trade practices—practices he said were coming at the expense of the American economy. After defeating Hillary Clinton, Trump’s adjutants set about putting his plan for tariffs into place, and executed it.
Eight years later, Trump again is making China the bogeymen of American blue-collar workers, many of whom catapulted him to victory over Vice President Kamala Harris. But this time China is a very different rival. Over a decade, it’s achieved many if not most of its goals for technological development, a success fueled in part by the self-reliance forced upon it by Trump’s trade war. In the Bloomberg Originals mini-documentary Why Trump Faces a Losing Tech War With China, we show how the Republican’s tariffs may benefit Beijing in the long run—while damaging American workers.