It’s like the animators of “School House Rock” made a hostage video with a creepy talking soybean instead of an anthropomorphic bill on Capitol Hill and with the threat of economic stagnation instead of the chipper message about representative democracy.
The creepy animation in question comes courtesy of CGTN, the English language news channel of the Chinese government, and the warning is obvious. If President Trump doesn’t stop his trade war, China will destroy agricultural markets in the Midwest and ruin Republican majorities in Congress.
Chinese government releases creepy cartoon threatening soybean farmers and Republicans in red agricultural states. https://t.co/4iusZVE4dl pic.twitter.com/IARndOZd7u
— Philip Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) July 23, 2018
China will do this, according to the two-minute video, by crushing the soybean market with retaliatory tariffs. As the animation points out, 62 percent of soybeans grown in the U.S. end up overseas in Chinese markets. That little bean got caught up in the big trade war after Trump imposed steel tariffs. Soybean prices have plummeted 18 percent since and things could get much worse.
“More expensive soy could mean that China will look to other sources for the bulk of its imports,” the creepy talking bean continues. “As two of the top soybean suppliers to China, Brazil and Argentina could pick up the slack.”
None of this is new information. Analysts and journalists have been reporting on the agricultural gut punch for months. What is alarming is that China now admits to meddling in our elections — albeit indirectly.
Retaliatory tariffs on soybeans hurt 10 Midwestern states, nine of which, the animation points out, voted for Trump in the general election. If the president doesn’t relent, the tariffs will continue and then maybe some of those states will rethink their Republican allegiance. After all, the geopolitically street-smart soybean continues, Iowa and Ohio are swing states.
The Chinese bean gets in the administration’s face in the last moments of the animation showing Trump taking money out of the pocket of a Midwestern voter and that voter simultaneously voting Democrat. It’s all very threatening and it was released just days ahead of the president’s visits to Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri — three of the biggest soybean producing states.
America should not, and will not, wilt because of low budget animated propaganda. It should learn, however, though that trade wars are not good and are not easy to win against a country insulated from political pressure. The Chinese does not have any real election to exploit. We do.
