Top Republican, Democrat in Senate Laud Trump's China Trade Confrontation
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in a speech on the Senate floor May 21, said he hopes that the administration does not repeat with Huawei what it did with ZTE, "where we stood tough at the beginning, it had an effect, and then we backed off."
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Huawei and ZTE are both top Chinese telecommunications equipment manufacturers that operate multinationally. "China has taken advantage of us," Schumer continued. "There is a huge consensus now in America that that has happened. We didn't have that consensus even five years ago, but whether it's business, labor, average American citizens, Democrats, Republicans -- everyone agrees China takes advantage. And one of the main ways they take advantage is they don't let our companies that have top-line products sell them in China, except under restrictions that make it almost impossible for them to do it," he said.
As if to prove Schumer's point about the political consensus on China, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., answered a question about trade tensions with China during his press conference later that day, saying, "I think we have the greatest problems in the trade space with China. It's been a long, festering ongoing problem. I think we all commend the president for taking on the Chinese for all the unfair ways they've treated us over the years, and we're all wishing he will have great success."