WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Trump angered Beijing by signing a memorandum earlier this week ordering US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to investigate China’s trade policies, including the alleged $600 million theft of US intellectual property rights annually. China denies the claims. Former White House adviser Steve Bannon said the United States was pursuing a covert economic war against China.
"We are headed into a world trade war, triggered by the tragically misguided attempt to bring China to economic heel," Freeman said.
Freeman said Trump’s policies were based on false assumptions and that even his own staff could not agree on them but were divided into feuding factions.
"President Trump's effort to bend reality to fit his incorrigibly foolish views of it has been accompanied by battles among his staff, with some taking extreme neo-mercantilist positions," he said.
Trump‘s reckless policies were already having a catastrophic impact on US standing in the world, Freeman stated.
United States formally launched the probe into China's trade practices to find out whether the country's actions may harm American commerce, Lighthizer announced in a press release on Friday. According to the US Department of Commerce, the total value of exports from and imports to China amounted to $115.6 and $462.6 billion in 2016, respectively.
Chas Freeman is a lifetime director of the Atlantic Council and served as US Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’affaires at the US embassies in Beijing and Bangkok. Freeman also held several senior level positions at the US Department of Defense.
