136.3% of their overall surplus. that gives us tremendous leverage to deal with the chinese but only we use it and we haven t been willing to use it. neil: the argument against tariffs is be a careful half you wish for because it leads to other countries having tariffs and countries friendly to it slipping on tariffs and before you know it you have a rigged trading, highly tack tacticsed system. if you re an account deficit country like we are you don t worry about trade wars. we have to do something, neil, because right now we re bleeding. this is the biggest transfer of technology and wealth in history, and the chinese are meaning to use this against us. neil: everything you have written and talked about has come to pass. hats off to you. gord gordon chang.
south koreans have confidence in our ability to defend them. up to now, they have lost that confidence. jenna: why is that? the u.s. policy has been ineffective over decades. the north koreans have longer range missiles and nuclear arsenal and we have not been able to stop them. jenna: so how do we change direction on the course we have been on through several different administrations that allows the north koreans to continue to operate as a rogue nation. the key to that is separating beijing. the way to do that is yes, it would be nice just to talk to the chinese. but i think that we have to use our leverage. the chinese need our economy much more than we need them. last year, china s surplus trade was 136.3% of its overall surplus, which meant that they were running deficits so they could run a surplus against us. that gives us enormous leverage that we are not using.
problem but a global one. we need to talk to china in a specific way and you are either a friend or not and with us or against us. but china has so far ignored concerns from the united states at this point. what makes you think they will really listen to what the u.s. has to say about this? it is it a problem because there is it a incomplete leadership in chin a. military in beijing is more powerful and that undercuts the ability to work with china. we have a leverage over the chinese last year their merchandise purplace was 136.3 percent of all trade surplumpts and that means they had deficits with the rest of the world and run a surplus against us. that gives us leverage. even if we think that there is turmoil in beijing, we have to
lent. they ve had long held pro pyongyang views. china is going to be difficult. we have a lot of economic leverage over the chinese. last year the trade surplus against the u.s. was 136.3% of the overall merchandise trade surplus, they were running deficits with the rest of the world to run a surplus against us. that gives us enormous leverage but only if we use it. great to have you here. i appreciate it. more comments from conservative politicians, how does the gop repair the damage to its tarnished image straight ahead. we understand. our financial advice is geared specifically to current and former military members and their families. life brings obstacles. usaa brings retirement advice. try align. it s the number one ge recommended probiotic that helps maintain digestive balance.
agencies and we know that microsoft has been infiltrated, apple has been looked at and google has pulled out of china in part because of this. what are they going after? they re going after everything, not just the national security establishment. they re going after companies for information so that their state enterprises can better compete against us. going after critical infrastructure and also the institutions of a free society. ngo s, charities, advocacy groups. the free press, new york times, wall street journal. clayton: quickly what can we do? use our economic leverage against the chinese. they had the biggest surplus against us. and chinese s merchandise trade surplus against the u.s. was 136.3% of the overall surplus. that gives us enormous leverage if we care to use it. clayton: thanks so much for joining us. appreciate it. thank you. clayton: coming up on the show. how to fight the battle of the