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President Trump seeks China’s help

Cooperation to get North Korea to behave may produce a peaceful outcome

President Donald Trump is being criticized for dropping complaints about currency manipulation by China, while he attempts to gain Beijing’s help against North Korea’s rogue regime.

It is true that China’s currency manipulation has been harmful to some U.S. businesses and workers. At some point, it may be necessary to take steps to deal with that problem.

But North Korea’s failed attempt to test a missile not long ago makes the immediacy of that problem clear. Pyongyang simply hasn’t gotten the message that after eight years of being able to ignore the United States, red lines now mean something.

Trump is right to pull out all the stops to gain China’s help against North Korea. The bottom line is that while currency manipulation is a problem, it isn’t likely to be the spark that starts a war.

The recent meetings held at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort between our president and Xi Jinping, China’s president, appear to have been highly productive. These two key world leaders seem to have established a personal rapport that could enable a constructive working relationship between China and the United States.

If that proves to be the case, it is very good news indeed.

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