For all of Donald Trump’s seemingly un-Republican rhetoric on trade, much of his skepticism is actually found in the official party platform from the last presidential election. The GOP’s 2012 language is thoroughly anti-China, detailed in how a Republican president would approach the Asian nation, and emphatic that the United States have uncompromising—wait for it—negotiators. He wouldn’t have much reason to touch substantial chunks of it were he to secure the party’s nomination for president.
“This worldwide explosion of trade has had a downside … as some governments have used a variety of unfair means to limit American access to their markets while stealing our designs, patents, brands, know-how, and technology—the ‘intellectual property’ that drives innovation,” the platform document reads. “The chief offender is China, which has built up its economy in part by piggybacking onto Western technological advances, manipulates its currency to the disadvantage of American exporters, excludes American products from government purchases, subsidizes Chinese companies to give them a commercial advantage, and invents regulations and standards designed to keep out foreign competition.”
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