Don't listen to what Trump says, but look at what he does

Trump Threatens Again Tariffs On $200 Billion Of Chinese Goods
By CHRISTOPHER DEAN HOPKINS

Donald Trump pumps his fist as he leaves a meeting Monday in the East Room of the White House in Washington.

In the latest move in a nascent trade war, Trump announced Monday evening that he was asking U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to "suggest" $200 billion worth of Chinese goods on which the U.S. could impose a 10 percent tariff.
The move comes just three days after the president detailed an initial $50 billion in imports that would be taxed an additional 25 percent, which he said was punishment for the theft of intellectual property from U.S. companies, as well as the trade gap between the two countries.
Later on Friday, China announced its own tariffs on American goods, including a wide range of seafood and agricultural products, many cars and trucks, petrochemicals and an array of medical equipment.

In a statement issued by the White House press office on Monday, Trump said, "I have an excellent relationship with President Xi, and we will continue working together on many issues. But the United States will no longer be taken advantage of on trade by China and other countries in the world."
Trump threatened to continue the economic escalation, saying that if China retaliates against the second round of tariffs more would be imposed.
In a speech to the Detroit Economic Club on Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused China of "an unprecedented level of larceny," NPR's Michelle Kelemen reports.
"Chinese leaders over these past few weeks have been claiming openness and globalization. But it's a joke," Pompeo said. 

"Let's be clear: It's the most predatory economic government that operates against the rest of the world today."
In a separate issue Monday evening, Senate Republicans pushed back against the Trump administration's lifting of sanctions on Chinese telecom firm ZTE, reinstating the penalties as part a defense bill. 

That measure isn't expected to make it through the House of Representatives, however.

Rogue Nation

Wife marches for 'vanished' husband
BBC News

Li Wenzu is walking from Beijing to Tianjin

The wife of a detained Chinese lawyer has begun a march of more than 100km (62 miles) to try to find answers about his fate.
Li Wenzu is walking from Beijing to Tianjin, where she thinks Wang Quanzhang may be being held.
She told the BBC she had heard nothing since his arrest 1,000 days ago and did not even know if he was still alive.
Mr Wang was held in August 2015 during a nationwide crackdown that detained more than 200 rights activists.
Activists say the "709" crackdown as it is now known -- a reference to 9 July, the date it began -- was a sign of the growing intolerance of dissent under Xi Jinping.

Li Wenzu, speaking last year about her husband's disappearance

The state-run People's Daily at the time called some of the leading detainees "a major criminal gang that has seriously damaged social order".
Ms Li is doing the 12-day walk to try to force the authorities to tell her what has happened to her husband. 

All she knows is that he was detained.
She asked whether China was following its policy of "ruling the country according to the law" if her husband's lawyer was not allowed to see him.
She also said she suspected her husband had been tortured.

Ms Li does not even know if her husband is still alive

Ms Li told Reuters: "[They have] abused all of our rights. Arresting an innocent person like this, locking him up for almost 1,000 days, I think this is cruel. It's heartless."
Mr Wang handled cases of complaints of police torture, and defended members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, which China calls an evil cult.
In this interview from 2015, he recounted being beaten in the basement of a court building for challenging the order of a judge.
Ms Li is being accompanied on her walk by Wang Qiaoling, wife of rights lawyer, Li Heping, who was given a suspended sentence for subversion last April.
Many of those held in the "709" crackdown were given jail terms, suspended sentences or house arrest.