On August 6, 2018, the People’s Daily Foreign Edition launched an attack against US President Donald Trump’s trade policy using a Wang Hailou (望海楼) column, an important column directed at members of the Chinese diaspora, written by a senior editor for the newspaper, Hu Jihong (胡继鸿). The article criticized the logic of Trump’s foreign policy, which Hu Jihong summarized as being based on the belief that “the US has taken on too many responsibilities and all countries across the world are taking advantage of the US.” He explained that Trump has chosen the most “simple and crude” way to revitalize the US economy: bypassing the WTO, unilaterally provoking trade frictions, and “forcing other countries (even traditional allies) to ‘fleece’ the whole world in the interest of the United States.” Hu Jihong said that Trump has aimed to “force China to make major concessions at the negotiating table,” but that “if Mr. Trump is familiar with modern and contemporary Chinese history, then he cannot be unaware: in matters of national interest and national dignity, China will absolutely not accept blackmail. It will stand upright and respond.” He described Trump’s “carefully arranged…deceitful street fighter-style drama of extortion and intimidation, expecting others to sing along according to their scripts” as “wishful thinking.
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