While the Trump administration is taking a justified victory lap over its recent spate of successful trade renegotiations with multiple trading partners, the one sore spot that the White House appears intent on glossing over has been the failure of its trade negotiations with the People’s Republic of China.

In fact, Beijing is so galvanized by its successful use of strong-arm tactics against Trump’s trade negotiators that they have carried this approach to their other partners as well. European trade negotiators, who are currently negotiating a round of deals with China, have observed in recent weeks that the Chinese are utterly implacable in ways they have never been before.

After more than a decade of focusing like a laser on dominating the world’s known reserves of rare earth minerals, China now has the United States and the West right where it wants them. Beijing has even

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