Thursday, August 17, 2017

Bannon Trying to Re-Shape USA's Asia Policy

Trump's policy strategist Steve Bannon is trying to re-shape America's policies towards Asia, as he works to oust those whom he feels represent the status quo:

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/08/bannon-interview-thornton/537189/

“I’m changing out people at East Asian Defense; I’m getting hawks in,” Bannon told The American Prospect, a liberal magazine, in a candid interview. “I’m getting Susan Thornton [acting head of East Asian and Pacific Affairs] out at State.”
At issue in the interview are Bannon’s views toward China—“We’re at economic war with China”—and what he sees as its inadequate help reining in North Korea. (“On Korea, they’re just tapping us along. It’s just a sideshow.” He also said he doesn’t believe there’s a military solution for North Korea.)

http://www.politico.eu/article/steve-bannon-white-house-vows-to-shake-up-staffing/

“To me,” Bannon said, “the economic war with China is everything. And we have to be maniacally focused on that. If we continue to lose it, we’re five years away, I think, 10 years at the most, of hitting an inflection point from which we’ll never be able to recover.”
Pushing his get-tough-with-China approach is “a fight I fight every day here.” At least part of his strategy, he said, would be to change out staff members at the State Department and Department of Defense, specifically naming one official he planned to remove.

http://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2107132/bannon-says-us-being-crushed-china-economic-war-he

https://www.ft.com/video/223f875c-cb61-4a71-aace-b94d52e312a4

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