Leaked documents show China’s game plan to drive a wedge into Trump’s base using targeted tariffs

• China is using tariffs with the hope of splitting “apart different domestic groups” in the US, according to a leaked propaganda notice.
• The notice, which outlined a range of censored content for Chinese media, included a brief overview of Beijing’s trade strategy.
• Experts already thought China was trying to target President Donald Trump’s political base with its tariffs, but this appears to be the first time the official strategy has become public.

China is explicitly using tariffs as a wedge issue designed to split “apart different domestic groups in the US,” according to leaked plans.

As a trade war looms between the two countries, Beijing issued a propaganda notice to Chinese media explaining the official game plan for handling the issue.

It was then leaked online and published by the censorship-monitoring site China Digital Times. Alongside instructions to avoid quoting President Donald Trump or other US officials and to focus instead on “economic brightspots,” the government gave outlets a description of its trade strategy.

Vice Premier Liu, the notice said, “has indicated that this stage of the U.S.-China trade conflict requires calm and rationality.”

It added: “We stop negotiation for now, acting tit for tat, roll out corresponding policies, hold public opinion at a good level without escalating it, limit scope, and strike accurately and carefully, splitting apart different domestic groups in US.”

The US-China trade conflict has seen a series of actual tariffs and tariff threats made by the two countries. It had already been widely speculated that China’s tariffs were targeting Trump’s political base of support. This notice appears to be the first time the official government strategy has become public.

In April, China placed restrictions on imports of , the bulk of which are produced in the Midwest — a region crucial for Trump’s victory in the 2016 election. The president won eight of the top 10 soybean-producing states.

Shortly afterward, China placed a 179% tariff on US sorghum imports. The crop is grown in the Southern states — an area that also voted heavily for Trump. Kansas, which Trump won by more than 20 percentage points, is the top producer of sorghum, and trade media reported at the time that it would be “substantially hurt” by the measure.

According to the Brookings Institution, 82% of counties that were “exposed” to tariffs earlier this year supported Trump in 2016. This had the ability to affect more than 1 million jobs.

“The Chinese tariff lists seem optimally designed to especially agitate President Trump’s red-state base,” the Brookings Institution report said.

But it is also appears China may have been using the states as a bargaining chip. In May, the sorghum penalties were axed the same week Trump received a visit from a Chinese trade delegation led by Liu, who said the countries had agreed to “not fight a trade war.”

China isn’t the only one seeking to hit Trump where it hurts.

In response to tariffs on steel and aluminum, the European Union introduced levies on iconic American items including motorcycles, jeans, and bourbon. Harley-Davidson, which is based in Wisconsin and manufactures motorcycles there, announced plans to shift some production overseas in response.

The move is essentially a slap in the face for Trump, who won Wisconsin by less than 1 percentage point and has repeatedly praised the company for building bikes in the US.

When it comes to China, though, the country made its approach clear in the rest of the leaked censorship notice.

“The trade conflict is really a war against China’s rise, to see who has the greater stamina,” it said. “This is absolutely no time for irresolution or reticence.”

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