So, President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are going to meet on U.S.-China tariffs.

I like little of what our president does, but on China I’m very much in agreement with his course of action. China is the big — and bad — dog of Asia, with a consistent, well-documented and unapologetic record of abusing the human rights of its citizens, turning a blind eye to trafficking in endangered species, trashing the environment at every opportunity, egregious hacking of American companies, stealing intellectual property, harvesting organs for transplant from prisoners, intransigence on Tibet and so on. It’s a long list.

In the past 20 years, U.S. administrations have tried to engage China on these matters, but China turns a deaf ear to it all. How to get its attention? Only one way has any realistic chance of success: tariffs. China is not going to win the tariff standoff, and they know it.

Yes, tariffs are going to cause some financial pain for us. So be it. It’s time we took a stand for morality.

John Kitchen

Kailua-Kona

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