Press TV April 20, 2025
Israel kills 54 in 24 hrs in Gaza as Netanyahu vows to continue genocidal war
As the Israeli military killed at least 54 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to press ahead with his genocidal war in the besieged territory.
Mahmoud Basal, the spokesman of the Palestinian Civil Defense in Gaza, said the fatalities took place after Israeli bombardments targeted several areas across the devastated territory, including Gaza City, Khan Younis, Beit Lahia and al-Bureij refugee camp.
“Fifty-four people have been killed in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip since dawn… and the number is likely to rise as the bombing continues until this moment,” Basal said.
The Israeli military ramped up airstrikes and expanded its ground offensives in Gaza after shattering a nearly two-month ceasefire with the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas in mid-March.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu, in a televised speech on Saturday, said that the regime would continue the genocide in Gaza until “Hamas is defeated.”
He claimed that that military pressure was the only way to force the resistance movement to agree to the exchange of captives and abductees from both sides.
Hamas has repeatedly stated that any exchange of captives and abductees is dependent on Israel ending its brutal war and withdrawing its occupying forces from Palestinian territory.
The Israeli prime minister also vowed to bring home remaining captives from Gaza without yielding to Hamas’ demands, insisting that the military campaign in the Palestinian territory had reached a “critical stage.”
Netanyahu’s speech came as large protests erupted in Tel Aviv, pressing for a deal with Hamas to hand over Israeli captives in exchange for ending the genocide in Gaza.
An Israeli campaign group called on the regime’s premier on Saturday to secure a deal to bring the captives from Gaza, even if it meant ending the war.
“Netanyahu has no plan. Tonight, we heard endless talk about what not to do… There is one clear, feasible, and urgent solution that can be achieved now: reach a deal that will bring everyone home - even if it means stopping the fighting,” the group said.
Israel launched its deadly bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, after Hamas-led resistance groups carried out a historic operation against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
In its operation, Hamas took 251 Israelis captive, 58 of whom now remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the occupation’s military. Several of the captives have been killed in the Israeli military’s strikes on the blockaded territory.
After one and a half years of war, the Tel Aviv regime has failed to achieve its declared objectives of “eliminating Hamas” and freeing captives, despite killing over 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former war minister, Yoav Gallant, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity on November 21, 2024.
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/04/20/746495/Israeli-regime-54-Palestinians-Gaza-Strip-Benjamin-Netanyahu-genocidal-war-
Gaza Health records 51,201 martyrs in newest death toll
Gaza health officials report 44 killed and 145 injured in the past 24 hours amid ongoing Israeli strikes, pushing the death toll from October 7, 2023, to over 51,200 martyrs.
Gaza’s health authorities have reported that 44 people were killed and 145 others injured in the past 24 hours as a result of continued Israeli aggression across the Gaza Strip. The figures were released as part of the latest daily update amid a deepening humanitarian crisis.
According to the report, emergency response teams are facing severe access challenges. Many victims remain trapped beneath rubble or stranded in areas that rescue crews cannot safely reach due to the ongoing hostilities.
Health officials noted that the inability to recover bodies or provide urgent medical assistance is contributing to the mounting toll. Medical facilities remain overwhelmed, while damaged infrastructure continues to limit the delivery of critical care.
Since the beginning of the war on October 7, 2023, the total number of reported casualties in Gaza has reached 51,201 martyrs and 116,869 injured, according to official figures from Palestinian health authorities.
In the most recent phase of the war, which began on March 18, 2025, at least 1,827 people have been martyred and 4,828 others wounded. These figures underscore the continued intensity of military operations and their impact on civilians.
Local and international humanitarian organizations have raised repeated alarms over the deteriorating humanitarian situation. With hospitals operating far beyond capacity and emergency personnel facing extreme risks, the delivery of aid and medical support remains highly constrained.
On Saturday, the Israeli occupation forces escalated their military operations across the Gaza Strip, launching a wave of air and drone strikes that have left numerous civilians martyred and many more wounded, according to Al Mayadeen’s correspondent.
The latest overnight attacks deepened the already dire humanitarian crisis in Palestine, as multiple children fell victim to the Israeli strikes.
In Khan Younis, located in the southern Gaza Strip, four civilians — including two children and a young girl — were killed when an Israeli airstrike targeted a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians in the al-Mawasi area. A separate drone strike near the British field hospital in the same district claimed another four lives and caused multiple injuries.
Israeli drones also struck a tent sheltering displaced people near the Al-Amal Hotel in western Gaza City, killing two people and injuring four. Additional casualties were reported in a subsequent attack on another tent in the al-Mawasi region, which continues to be a haven for displaced families.
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/gaza-health-records-51-201-martyrs-in-newest-death-toll
Middle East Monitor - April 20, 2025
Israeli Officials: No Humanitarian Aid for “Human Animals” of Gaza, Ever
(ﾠMiddle East Monitorﾠ) – Since the early days of the latest and ongoing phase of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, humanitarian aid has become a major weapon. It was on 9 October 2023 that the then Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant ordered a complete siege to be imposed on Gaza. “There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed,” he announced. “We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.”
“Human animals” only exist in the minds of Zionists and their fake security narrative, of course. The reality is that Israel decided to completely deprive Palestinians of life, and there was no better way to complement their aerial bombardment of Gaza than starvation.
The rationale was that Palestinians would die, one way or another, or a combination of both.
A year and a half later, Israeli officials are still debating their warped concepts of humanitarian aid. Defence Minister Israel Katz announced yesterday that no humanitarian aid will enter Gaza until “civilian companies” are established. The announcement that the Palestinians remaining in Gaza might at some point receive humanitarian aid was met with opposition from other Israeli officials in the far-right coalition government.
“As long as our hostages are dying in the tunnels, there is no reason for a gram of food or aid to enter Gaza,” said Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. His statement made no recognition of the fact that the Israeli hostages are highly likely to be killed by the genocidal state’s relentless bombing.
Culture Minister Miki Zohar also opposed any transfer of humanitarian aid. “Only hellfire for the perpetrators of terror until the last of our hostage brothers and sisters return home safely,” he said. Genocide does not allow anyone to return home safely, so the premise Zohar speaks of is interminable.
Clarifying his statement, Katz said that, “Israel’s policy is clear and no humanitarian aid is about to enter Gaza. In the current reality, no one is going to bring any humanitarian aid into Gaza, and no one is preparing to bring in any such aid.”
What stands out from these comments is that Israeli officials have a fetish for starving Palestinians in Gaza.
The comments do not envisage an end to starvation, while Katz’s statement on civilian companies and humanitarian aid only imply that bureaucracy will add to the deprivation of humanitarian aid. To put it briefly, Palestinians will either starve, or be killed by bureaucracy that starves, if they are not already killed by bombs.
Katz may define starvation as Israel policy, but it also denotes the fact that the international community is becoming comfortable with starvation being used as a weapon of war. Regardless of the millions pledged for humanitarian assistance, Israel is controlling the humanitarian paradigm and it has been doing so for quite a while. For the international community, humanitarian aid does not necessarily translate to actual aid, but rather the pretence of posturing and routine statements that have taken precedence over coordinated action to halt genocide by starvation.
Civilians are forced to either live in makeshift, overcrowded and unsanitary shelters, or in crumbling buildings, summarised the EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations this month.
Of course, there is no mention of EU countries participating directly in genocide and forcing Palestinians to live in such conditions, because humanitarian aid and politics are entirely separate, or so we are told by the politicians who politicise humanitarian aid. No wonder the world is not screaming “Genocide!” in unison; Israel’s policy of starvation is actually supported by the current humanitarian paradigm.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor or Informed Comment.
https://www.juancole.com/2025/04/israeli-officials-humanitarian.html
Quds News Network – April 20, 2025
Night in Gaza: A Living Nightmare
For the vast majority of civilians in Gaza, nighttime brings not rest, but horror—a relentless cycle of fear, pain, and uncertainty.
Nowhere feels safe. Not the remains of their homes, not the makeshift tents, not even the overcrowded displacement camps. As dusk falls over Gaza, people brace for what many describe as the most terrifying hours of the day.
“From 5 p.m. onwards, tank shelling intensifies,” local residents say. By 6 a.m., those who make it through the night wake to the deafening blasts of artillery, often unsure of where the missiles have landed—or who has survived.
Electricity has been cut for more than 18 months, leaving families into total darkness. There is no power, no light—only the sounds of drones, quadcopters, and bombardment.
“Night is like a nightmare,” says Ahmed Abu Saleh, a resident of Al-Maghazi camp. “It’s like we’re living inside a horror movie. Death is everywhere. Attacks, explosions, screams. People being burned alive. We hear it all.”
Before sleeping, Abu Saleh and his wife close the windows—not for privacy, but in fear. “We’re afraid a quadcopter might fly into our home,” he says. “We’ve seen them enter houses here in the camp, terrifying people even more, spying on us.”
His children, he adds, are haunted by the sound of drones. “They sleep next to me and their mother. They’re terrified. Night means bombs. Night means fear.”
Rania Abu Msameh shares a similar dread. “At night, we sleep not knowing whether we’ll wake up alive,” she says. “We all sleep in the same room. That way, we can hold each other, feel the same fear, and try to offer some comfort.”
“We wait for the morning,” she adds. “Because at least in the light, we can see where the strikes are happening. At night, we’re blind. We just hear the bombs, the Apache helicopters, the artillery shelling. The fire grows louder and closer.”
Daily life has narrowed to daylight hours. “We can’t move or do anything at night,” she says. “There’s no power, no safety. So we do everything while it’s still light. When the sun sets, we wait in the dark, helpless.”
For Gaza’s families, the night no longer offers rest—it only deepens the wounds of war.
https://countercurrents.org/2025/04/night-in-gaza-a-living-nightmare/
Palestinian Information Center – April 20, 2025
Dozens of settlers defile Aqsa Mosque under police guard
Scores of extremist Jewish settlers desecrated the Aqsa Mosque in Occupied Jerusalem on Sunday morning and later in the afternoon, amid tight restrictions on the entry of Muslim worshipers to the holy site.
According to local sources, dozens of settlers entered the Mosque through its Maghariba Gate and provocatively toured its courtyards under police protection.
During their tours at the Islamic holy site, the settlers received lectures from rabbis about the alleged temple mount and a number of them provocatively performed provocative dances and Talmudic prayers.
Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation police imposed movement and entry restrictions on Muslim worshipers at the Aqsa Mosque’s entrances and gates and prevented many of them from entering the holy site.
On Saturday, the Israeli police prevented Palestinian Christians from entering Jerusalem to attend the Holy Saturday (Holy Fire) ceremony at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
The Israeli police also barred the Vatican’s ambassador to Palestine from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulcher to attend the Holy Saturday prayers. Archbishop Adolfo Tito Yllana, who represents the Holy See, was stopped at a police checkpoint and denied entry to the holy site despite his diplomatic status and the sanctity of the occasion.
Many Christian worshipers were also exposed to assaults and arbitrary arrests at the hands of Israeli police officers as they tried to enter the church and celebrate the holy day’s events.
https://english.palinfo.com/news/2025/04/20/337717/
China holds more trade war cards than Trump thinks
In fact, unlike when Trump imposed his first trade war tariffs in 2018, China might now hold a winning hand
When Donald Trump pulled back on his plan to impose eye-watering tariffs on trading partners across the world, there was one key exception: China.
While the rest of the world would be given a 90-day reprieve on additional duties beyond the new 10% tariffs on all US trade partners, China would feel the squeeze even more. On April 9, 2025, Trump raised the tariff on Chinese goods to 125%.
The move, in Trump’s telling, was prompted by Beijingﾒs “lack of respect for global markets.” But the US president may well have been smarting from Beijing’s apparent willingness to confront US tariffs head-o
n.
While many countries opted not to retaliate against Trump’s now-delayed reciprocal tariff hikes, instead favoring negotiation and dialogue, Beijing took a different tack. It responded with swift and firm countermeasures.
On April 11, China dismissed Trumpﾒs moves as a ﾓjoke” and raised its own tariff against the US to 125%. In retaliation, Trump later raised his tariffs on China to 145% before declaring an exemption for certain electronics.
The two economies are now locked in an all-out, high-intensity trade standoff. And China is showing no signs of backing down.
And as an expert on US-China relations, I wouldn’t expect China to. Unlike the first US-China trade war during Trump’s initial term, when Beijing eagerly sought to negotiate with the US, China now holds far more leverage.
Indeed, Beijing believes it can inflict at least as much damage on the US as vice versa, while at the same time expanding its global position.
A changed calculus for China
There’s no doubt that the consequences of tariffs are severe for Chinaﾒs export-oriented manufacturers – especially those in the coastal regions producing furniture, clothing, toys and home appliances for American consumers.
But since Trump first launched a tariff increase on China in 2018, a number of underlying economic factors have significantly shifted Beijing’s calculus.
Crucially, the importance of the US market to China’s export-driven economy has declined significantly. In 2018, at the start of the first trade war, US-bound exports accounted for 19.8% of China’s total exports.
In 2023, that figure had fallen to 12.8%. The tariffs may further prompt China to accelerate its “domestic demand expansion” strategy, unleashing the spending power of its consumers and strengthening its domestic economy.
And while China entered the 2018 trade war in a phase of strong economic growth, the current situation is quite different. Sluggish real estate markets, capital flight and Western ﾓdecoupling” have pushed the Chinese economy into a period of persistent slowdown.
Perhaps counterintuitively, this prolonged downturn may have made the Chinese economy more resilient to shocks. It has pushed businesses and policymakers to come to factor in the existing harsh economic realities, even before the impact of Trump’s tariffs.
Trump’s tariff policy against China may also allow Beijing a useful external scapegoat, allowing it to rally public sentiment and shift blame for the economic slowdown onto US aggression.
China also understands that the US cannot easily replace its dependency on Chinese goods, particularly through its supply chains. While direct US imports from China have decreased, many goods now imported from third countries still rely on Chinese-made components or raw materials.
By 2022, the US relied on China for 532 key product categories – nearly four times the level in 2000 – while China’s reliance on US products was cut by half in the same period.
There’s a related public opinion calculation: Rising tariffs are expected to drive up prices, something that could stir discontent among American consumers, particularly blue-collar voters. Indeed, Beijing believes Trump’s tariffs risk pushing the previously strong US economy toward a recession.
Potent tools for retaliation
Alongside the changed economic environments, China also holds a number of strategic tools for retaliation against the US. It dominates the global rare earth supply chain – critical to military and high-tech industries – supplying roughly 72% of US rare earth imports, by some estimates.
On March 4, China placed 15 American entities on its export control list, followed by another 12 on April 9. Many were US defense contractors or high-tech firms reliant on rare earth elements for their products.
China also retains the ability to target key US agricultural export sectors such as poultry and soybeans – industries heavily dependent on Chinese demand and concentrated in Republican-leaning states.
China accounts for about half of US soybean exports and nearly 10% of American poultry exports. On March 4, Beijing revoked import approvals for three major U.S. soybean exporters.
And on the tech side, many US companies – such as Apple and Tesla – remain deeply tied to Chinese manufacturing. Tariffs threaten to shrink their profit margins significantly, something Beijing believes can be used as a source of leverage against the Trump administration. Already, Beijing is reportedly planning to strike back through regulatory pressure on US companies operating in China.
Meanwhile, the fact that Elon Musk, a senior Trump insider who has clashed with US trade adviser Peter Navarro against tariffs, has major business interests in China is a particularly strong wedge that Beijing could yet exploit in an attempt to divide the Trump administration.
A strategic opening for China?
While Beijing thinks it can weather Trump’s sweeping tariffs on a bilateral basis, it also believes the US broadside against its own trading partners has created a generational strategic opportunity to displace American hegemony.
Close to home, this shift could significantly reshape the geopolitical landscape of East Asia. Already on March 30 – after Trump had first raised tariffs on Beijing – China, Japan and South Korea hosted their first economic dialogue in five years and pledged to advance a trilateral free trade agreement.
The move was particularly remarkable given how carefully the US had worked to cultivate its Japanese and South Korean allies during the Biden administration as part of its strategy to counter Chinese regional influence. From Beijing’s perspective, Trump’s actions offer an opportunity to directly erode US sway in the Indo-Pacific.
Similarly, Trump’s steep tariffs on Southeast Asian countries, which were also a major strategic regional priority during the Biden administration, may push those nations closer to China.
Chinese state media announced on April 11 that President Xi Jinping will pay state visits to Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia from April 14-18, aiming to deepen “all-round cooperation” with neighboring countries.
Notably, all three Southeast Asian nations were targeted with now-paused reciprocal tariffs by the Trump administration – 49% on Cambodian goods, 46% on Vietnamese exports and 24% on products from Malaysia.
Farther away from China lies an even more promising strategic opportunity. Trump’s tariff strategy has already prompted China and officials from the European Union to contemplate strengthening their own previously strained trade ties, something that could weaken the transatlantic alliance that had sought to decouple from China.
On April 8, the president of the European Commission held a call with Chinaﾒs premier, during which both sides jointly condemned US trade protectionism and advocated for free and open trade.
Coincidentally, on April 9, the day China raised tariffs on US goods to 84%, the EU also announced its first wave of retaliatory measures – imposing a 25% tariff on selected US imports worth over 20 billion euros – but delayed implementation following Trump’s 90-day pause.
Now, EU and Chinese officials are holding talks over existing trade barriers and considering a full-fledged summit in China in July.
Finally, China sees in Trump’s tariff policy a potential weakening of the international standing of the US dollar. Widespread tariffs imposed on multiple countries have shaken investor confidence in the US economy, contributing to a decline in the dollarﾒs value.
Traditionally, the dollar and US Treasury bonds have been viewed as haven assets, but recent market turmoil has cast doubt on that status. At the same time, steep tariffs have raised concerns about the health of the US economy and the sustainability of its debt, undermining trust in both the dollar and US Treasurys.
While Trump’s tariffs will inevitably hurt parts of the Chinese economy, Beijing appears to have far more cards to play this time around. It has the tools to inflict meaningful damage on US interests – and perhaps more importantly, Trump’s all-out tariff war is providing China with a rare and unprecedented strategic opportunity.
Linggong Kong is PhD candidate in political science, Auburn University
Global Research – April 13, 2025
Trump Concocted the ‘Tariffs Hoax’ to ‘Decouple’ with China
By Mike Whitney
The Trump tariff extravaganza was never about trade deficits, reindustrialization, or bringing jobs back to America. It was always about China. Now that Trump has either eased or lifted the tariffs on 90 other countries, we can see what’s actually going on. Trump is using the ‘tariffs smokescreen’ to implement his decoupling policy, a strategy that is designed to isolate, encircle and eventually crush the People’s Republic of China. That’s the motive that drives the policy. The tariffs were just a means to an end. This is from CNN:
President Donald Trump announced a complete three-month pause on all the “reciprocal” tariffs that went into effect at midnight, with the exception of China, a stunning reversal from a president who had insisted historically high tariffs were here to stay.
But enormous tariffs will remain on China, the world’s second-largest economy. In fact, Trump said they will be increased to 125% from 104% after China announced additional retaliatory tariffs against the United States earlier Wednesday. All other countries that were subjected to reciprocal tariff rates Wednesday will see rates go back down to the universal 10% rate, he said.
“Based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets, I am hereby raising the Tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125%, effective immediately,” Trump said in his social media post. “At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable,” he wrote. Trump announces 90-day pause on ﾑreciprocalﾒ tariffs with exception of China, CNN
China’s “lack of respect”? So, Trump is setting US trade policy based on bruised feelings?
That’s just not a credible explanation. Something else is going on here.
China is being targeted because China’s meteoric rise and explosive growth has made it a threat to America’s global hegemony. That is why China has entered Washington’s crosshairs. By imposing prohibitive 125% tariffs on Chinese exports, Trump is indicating that the era of integrated markets in a globalized system is over. The world is being redivided into warring blocs by wealthy Capitalists in the West who cannot compete with China’s government-led model that controls the nation’s critical industries and recycles massive profits back into vital infrastructure, education, R&D and technology. The West’s highly financialized model—that increasingly depends on skimming the cream off toxic securities and stock buybacks—cannot remake itself into a manufacturing powerhouse willing to compete with China on a level playing field. Instead, it must use its waning influence to jolt the system with some unexpected fireworks display (the tariffs) that sends shockwaves through the system and panic across the markets. These contrived spectacles, that border on economic terrorism, are all part of Uncle Sam’s repertoire that are used to subdue the opposition and maintain Washington’s tenuous grip on power.
But do they work?
Trump seems to think so. Here’s Trump with his billionaire friends discussing ‘the killing’ they made when he eased the tariffs and markets soared.
We should have seen through this hoax from the very beginning. After all, if Trump was serious about bringing jobs back to the US, wouldn’t he have convened a Blue-Ribbon panel of industry experts and economists to create an industrial policy that would provide a roadmap for how to proceed? Wouldn’t he have looked into the feasibility of re-industrialization in a country that has already shuttered the bulk of its factories and no longer has a workforce that is trained to do the jobs that are about to be created? And wouldn’t he have solicited the support of wealthy Capitalists who could be persuaded to make the long-term investments required for an industrial project of this magnitude?
Yes, he would have. But he didn’t do any of those things, because he wasn’t serious about any of it. The whole tariffs-fracas was just an illusionist’s trick aimed at creating a pretext for attacking China. That’s why it was so easy for Trump to end the charade with a wave of his hand as if nothing had happened. Because nothing had happened. It was all a glitzy light-show devoid of any real substance.
And no one makes my case that ‘this was all about China’ better than Trump’s right-hand man, Treasury Scott Secretary Bessent.
Treasury Secretary Bessent just revealed that President Trump laid a trap and China fell into it. “This was driven by the president’s strategy… You might even say that he goaded China into a bad position. They responded. They have shown themselves to the world to be the bad actors, and we are willing to cooperate with our allies and with our trading partners who did not retaliate.” “It wasn’t a hard message. Don’t retaliate. Things will turn out well.” China screwed up badly.
Bessent is obviously pleased that he and Trump were able to ‘pull a fast one’ on China. Bessent thinks that’s good policy. And, of course, the American people—most of whom are distrustful of China to begin with—agree. “China is ripping us off”, says the president whose nation’s bank account is $36 trillion overdrawn and whose country lives on ‘the generosity of strangers.’ “China is stealing our jobs”, say the corporate bosses who uprooted their businesses and factories lock-stock-and-barrel and shipped them to China to take advantage of the cheap labor and free security. But now China must be crushed for aspiring to compete with “their betters” in the USA. Now China must be ‘brought to heel’.
Isn’t that what’s really going on? (if we’re honest with ourselves) Isn’t this really a case of sour grapes?
Indeed, it is. China has overtaken the US as the manufacturing capitol of the world through intelligence, hard work, ingenuity and an organizational model (recycled profits into productive activity) that is the result of good governance. That is why China is rapidly surpassing the US in science, technology, AI, quantum computing, robotics and nearly everything else. Because they are governed by people who aspire to create a civilization in which individuals and community achieve their full potential. This is why the entire country is crisscrossed with high-speed rail linking shiny, space-age cities together in a vision of 21st century modernity that is unrivaled in the world today. Whatever one may think about China, they must admit that—as a civilization and a society—they are headed in the right direction while the dilapidated, threadbare and deeply polarized US is in steep decline.
In any event, China’s success has generated considerable envy among western elites who are now determined to do everything in their power to turn back the clock to the post war era when the global economy was their oyster, and the “rules-based order” was the only game in town. The goal is to “contain China’s growth”, which is a sobriquet for subverting China’s development at every turn. The particular strategy even has a name. It’s called “decoupling” which refers to the process by which the United States (and other Western countries) reduce their economic, technological, and financial interdependence with China. In other words, western elites want to terminate trade with China as much as possible which will lead to isolation, encirclement and eventually, regime change. Sound familiar?
The trick is to make “decoupling” (economic isolation) look like it is being forced upon the United States which is why Trump keeps repeating the inane phrase, “China is ripping us off.”
Just to clarify that point: China gives US consumers quality merchandise that requires expensive resources, factories and investment in exchange for green sheets of paper of diminishing value. On which end of that deal would you rather be?
Take a minute and watch this short video with economist Larry Summers who explains that China is NOT cheating anyone by producing inexpensive goods that it is willing to exchange for USD.
.Lawrence Summers:
“If China wants to sell us things at really low prices and the transaction is we get solar collectors or we get batteries that we can put in electric cars and we send them pieces of paper that we print. Do you think that’s a good deal for us or a bad deal for us?”
Characterizing this as “cheating”, like Summers rightly says, should be rejected entirely. At the end of the day, who’s more “cheated”: the party doing the hard work of producing goods at very low prices on razor thin margins, or the party that simply prints a virtually infinite amount of fiat money to pay for all this stuff?
In short, the ‘tariffs flap’ was just a way to kick off the new policy (which is decoupling) which is aimed at intensifying the hostility between Washington and Beijing. With that in mind, I asked Grok the following question:
Does President Trump support decoupling with China?
Yes, former President Donald Trump has been a strong advocate for decoupling from China, both during his presidency (2017–2021) and in his subsequent political activities as of April 2025….
Trump initiated a trade war with China in 2018 by imposing tariffs on billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods… In 2018, the U.S. imposed tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese imports, followed by additional tariffs on $200 billion more in 2019….Trump framed this as a necessary step to “decouple” from China’s economy.
Trump banned U.S. companies from using equipment from Chinese telecom giants like Huawei and ZTE, citing national security risks. He also pushed for restrictions on TikTok and WeChat, arguing they posed threats to data privacy and could be used for espionage… He encouraged allies to exclude Huawei from their 5G networks, framing it as part of a broader effort to reduce technological dependence on China…..
During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly called for even tougher measures against China, including higher tariffs (proposing rates as high as 60% on all Chinese goods) and a complete overhaul of trade relations. In a speech in Ohio in March 2024, he said, “We’re going to decouple from China like never before. They’ve ripped us off for decades, and it’s time to end it.”
Trump has argued that decoupling would protect American jobs, strengthen the economy, and reduce national security risks. In a post from January 2025, he wrote, “China has taken advantage of us for too long. We need to cut the cord and build everything here at home.”
As of 2025, however, his tone has hardened, with less emphasis on negotiation and more on confrontation….
Posts on X from early 2025 show Trump doubling down on his anti-China stance, with supporters praising his “toughness”…. Grok
So, Trump is a big proponent of decoupling, which tells you everything you need to know.
Also, Trump’s hard-nosed policies towards China are heaped under the patriotic-sounding rubric, “economic nationalism”, as if American workers derived some benefit from higher prices and soaring inflation. The fact is, however, is that ordinary people will suffer greatly from decoupling and see their standards of living fall even further. That’s because the policy is not intended to create jobs, increase wages, improve health care or provide lower-cost education. It is aimed at preserving Washington’s grip on global power so that corrupt western elites can create more mischief while driving the country further into debt and despair. Here’s more from Grok:
Many economists forecast that these wide-ranging tariffs will accelerate inflation and dampen US economic growth, resulting in stagflation as economic growth falters even as prices remain painfully high…. Additionally, China is unlikely to lower its tariffs to appease Trump; instead, it has retaliated with 34% tariffs on US goods. Both countries’ increased tariffs will reduce bilateral trade.
While China can survive without importing most of the US$125 billion in American goods, the US and many other countries will continue to rely on China for various parts and components. Even if the US imports goods from other countries, those countries will still depend on China for parts.
Potential contradictions and economic consequences
Trump’s reciprocal tariffs are likely to cause a self-inflicted recession in the US. Also, it could create confusion and unintended consequences… Seven years ago, Trump’s first wave of tariffs raised the cost of Chinese goods by 20%, but US imports from China continued to grow….
In the future, even if tariffs on Chinese products rise to 54%, the US will still need to buy from China. By contrast, American products, such as soybeans or crude oil, have limited competitiveness in China. China’s retaliatory tariffs on the US will force it to find alternative markets, leading to losses for US soybean and crude oil exporters….Grok
What part of the above excerpt sounds like a ‘good deal’ for the American people?
None of it. It’s all bad. And the one glimmer of light in this whole dismal affair is the fact that the American people oppose the policy because they know they’ll be hurt by it. Take a look at this survey at PEW:
Tariffs On China
Tariffs are another key part of Trump’s foreign policy. Increased tariffs on China, specifically, receive more negative than positive evaluations…. Many more think the increased tariffs on China will be bad for the U.S. than say they will be good, though around a quarter either see them having no effect or are unsure.
Views of the tariffs’ personal impact are similarly negative: Americans are about five times as likely to say the increased tariffs on China will be bad for them as they are to say the tariffs will be beneficial.
Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say increased tariffs on China will be good for the U.S. and good for them personally. Still, when it comes to the personal impact of these tariffs, Republicans are more likely to say the impact will be bad (30%) than good (17%), even as substantial shares express uncertainty or anticipate the tariffs will have limited personal impact. Tariffs On China, PEW Research Center
.
So, at least there exists a slim majority of Americans who oppose decoupling, oppose the relentless provocations and incitements, and oppose Trump’s pointless War on China. Let’s hope that majority holds..
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This article was originally published on The Unz Review.
Michael Whitney is a renowned geopolitical and social analyst based in Washington State. He initiated his career as an independent citizen-journalist in 2002 with a commitment to honest journalism, social justice and World peace.
He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).
https://www.globalresearch.ca/trump-concocted-tariffs-hoax-decouple-china/5884304
Global Research – April 12, 2025
“Billionaires Try to Shrink World’s Population
”: Secret Gathering Sponsored by Bill Gates, 2009 Meeting of “The Good Club”
Is Worldwide Depopulation Part of the Billionaire's "Great Reset"
By Prof Michel Chossudovsky
Population culminating with the 2020-2024 Covid crisis.
Recent developments suggest that “Depopulation” is an integral part of the so-called Covid mandates including the lockdown policies and the mRNA “vaccine”.
Flash back to 2009. According to the Wall Street Journal: “Billionaires Try to Shrink World’s Population”.
In May 2009, the Billionaire philanthropists met behind closed doors at the home of the president of The Rockefeller University in Manhattan.
This Secret Gathering was sponsored by Bill Gates. They called themselves “The Good Club”.
Among the participants were the late David Rockefeller, Warren Buffett, George Soros, Michael Bloomberg Ted Turner, Oprah Winfrey and many more.
In May 2009, the WSJ as well as the Sunday Times reported: (John Harlow, Los Angeles) that
“Some of America’s leading billionaires have met secretly to consider how their wealth could be used to slow the growth of the world’s population and speed up improvements in health and education.”
The emphasis was not on population growth (i.e Planned Parenthood) but on “Depopulation”, i.e,. the reduction in the absolute size of the World’s population.
According to the Sunday Times report :
The philanthropists who attended a summit convened on the initiative of Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, discussed joining forces to overcome political and religious obstacles to change.
…
Stacy Palmer, editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, said the summit was unprecedented. “We only learnt about it afterwards, by accident. Normally these people are happy to talk good causes, but this is different – maybe because they don’t want to be seen as a global cabal,” he said.
Another guest said there was “nothing as crude as a vote” but a consensus emerged that they would back a strategy in which population growth would be tackled as a potentially disastrous environmental, social and industrial threat.
“This is something so nightmarish that everyone in this group agreed it needs big-brain answers,” said the guest. …
Why all the secrecy? “They wanted to speak rich to rich without worrying anything they said would end up in the newspapers, painting them as an alternative world government,” he said.(Sunday Times)
Shrinking The World’s Population
The media reports on the May 5, 2009 secret gathering focussed on the commitment of “The Good Club” to “slowing down” the growth of the World’s population.
“Shrink the World Population” (the WSJ Title) goes far beyond Planned Parenthood which consists in “Reducing the Growth of World Population”. It consists in “Depopulation”, namely reducing the absolute size of the World’s Population, which ultimately requires reducing the rate of birth (which would include reduced fertility) coupled with a significant increase in the death rate.
Secret Meeting: At the Height of the H1N1 Pandemic
On April 25, 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) headed by Margaret Chan declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). And a couple of weeks later, the “Good Club” met in NYC at the height of the H1N1 swine flu pandemic which turned out to be a scam.
It is also worth noting that at very outset of the H1N1 crisis in April 2009, Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College, London was advising Bill Gates and the WHO: “40 per cent of people in the UK could be infected [with H1N1] within the next six months if the country was hit by a pandemic.”
Sounds familiar? That was the same Neil Ferguson (generously supported by the Gates Foundation) who designed the coronavirus Lockdown Model (launched on March 11, 2020). As we recall, that March 2020 mathematical model was based on “predictions” of 600,000 deaths in the UK.
And now (Summer- Autumn 2021) a third authoritative “mathematical model” by the same “scientist” (Ferguson) was formulated to justify a “Fourth Wave Lockdown”.
Saving Lives to Achieve “Depopulation”
Was an absolute “reduction” in World population contemplated at that May 2009 secret meeting?
A few months later, Bill Gates in his TED presentation (February 2010) pertaining to vaccination, confirmed the following;
“And if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower that [the world population] by 10 or 15 percent”.
According to Gates’ statement, this would represent an absolute reduction of the World’s population (2010) of the order of 680 million to 1.02 billion.
(See quotation on Video starting at 04.21. See also screenshot of Transcript of quotation)
“The Good Club” Then and Now
The same group of billionaires who met at the May 2009 secret venue at the Rockefeller University in Manhattan, have been actively involved from the outset of the Covid crisis in designing the lockdown policies applied Worldwide including the mRNA vaccine and the WEF’s “Great Reset”.
The mRNA vaccine is not a project of a UN intergovernmental body (WHO) on behalf the member states of the UN: It’s a private initiative. The billionaire elites who fund and enforce the Covid Vaccine Project Worldwide are Eugenists committed to Depopulation.
