Trump thinks he’s flying to Beijing with leverage. China spent 6 years making sure he doesn’t have any, says professor of applied economics, Steve Hanke
https://fortune.com/2026/05/10/steve-hanke-trump-beijing-summit-china-leverage-rare-earths-hormuz/
Posted by T_Shurt
6 Comments
Trump thinks he is flying to China for a dirty massage and some ice cream. Why try to sanewash a wannabe gangster like him? Economies of the world’s democracies need to focus on securing themselves from corruption.
It does not appear that he has any leverage with China. The weapons used against Iran all depend on rare earths for their production. Row crop farmers depend on China purchases of soybeans for survival. China has smartly diversified their energy production so there is less dependence on Middle East oil. They have expanded export markets for less dependence on US. To me it seems that Trump is going to China to add another screen to the Epstein files to eat up all the oxygen in the news cycle.
His constant backtracking and inability to follow through with agreements (both because he’s completely untrustworthy and makes illegal deals that get reversed by the courts) makes him an awful negotiator. He can’t realize that having integrity and making mutually beneficial deals are the actual “art of the deal.”
Trump has done all he could to remove any leverage the US might have. He’s driven the nations of the world into the arms of China and destabilized the US. China just had to periodically pick up the balls that Trump left in advantageous positions
Can someone who knows more about economics explain to me what leverage the U.S. might be considered to have? For the officials attempting to make deals, what might they be thinking they can use?
What’s it matter? These guys are going to do what they are going to do regardless of the pain it inflicts on their people. All just hope direct conflict in a world war can be avoided.