China Watch: Xi’s Middle Finger on Exports
“Given her approach to the People’s Republic of China, failure was the only possible option” of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s unsuccessful visit to Beijing to discuss “China’s predatory trade practices,” frets Gordon G. Chang at Newsweek.
“Before Yellen left China, Chinese officials were expressing their profound disagreement with her criticisms.”
Top dog Xi Jinping is “intent on putting China on a wartime footing, which means he’s determined to build even more industrial capacity.”
Meanwhile, Yellen’s remarks signaled “reluctance in the Biden administration to ruffle the Chinese leadership, with tariffs or anything else,” in response to China’s “predatory conduct.”
So of course “Xi Jinping has made it clear that he does not intend to change course on exports.”
Culture war: No Women-Only Spaces at All?
An Australian case will determine “whether individuals should be allowed to self-define as whatever ‘gender identity’ they choose, and whether that identity then trumps biological sex,” reports Julie Bindel at The Spectator.
It pits a “transwoman called Roxanne Tickle” against businesswoman Sall Grover, who banned Tickle from her “females only” app Giggle, where “women can find a flatmate, or organize social meet-ups.”
Tickle seeks “to make it illegal for women to even have boundaries.”
Grover’s already suffered through a four-year legal battle, bad publicity and financial loss as her site’s been shut down.
It can happen elsewhere: “If the trans activists” had their way, “a man could simply declare he is a woman, based on nothing more than a ‘feeling’, and be considered so legally.”
From the right: RFK Jr.’s Power in 2024
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “remains the most likely third-party candidate to influence the outcome of the race,” notes The Wall Street Journal’s Jason L. Riley.
Polls put “his support at just under 10%,” and “even if his support drops to half its current level,” he’s still a force “in swing states.”
Polls show “black and Latino working-class men” moving away from the Democratic Party, and a recent survey showed “the share of the black vote with a favorable view of Kennedy had climbed to 51% from 38%.”
Then again, “If black voters . . . no longer believe that racial identity should determine which political party they support, this is progress.”
Liberal: Sonia Should Step Down
In purely partisan terms, Nate Silver argues at his Silver Bulletin, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, 70 and diabetic, would be wise to resign now, lest she “die or become unable to carry out her duties before Democrats again control both the presidency and the Senate” — which could be a long time: “Prediction markets give Democrats only a 25 percent chance of keeping control of the Senate” in November, and the presidency is 50-50.
And “even if Democrats do retain the presidency and the Senate in 2024, they’ll probably lose the Senate in 2026.”
Fact is, since justices serve an average of 28 years, each high court seat (of the nine) has more than half as much impact as a one-term president.
Joe Biden can pick “one of the many other qualified Latino or Latina” jurists to replace her.
And a confirmation “fight would galvanize the Democratic base, particularly given that abortion tends to unite the party.”
War watch: Joe’s Latest Mideast Mistake
President “Biden, more likely than not, just seriously messed things up in the Middle East,” warn Mark Toth & Jonathan Sweet at The Hill.
By “pressuring Israel to draw back from Hamas,” he “may prod it into taking the fight directly to the source: Iran.”
Israel’s April 1 bombing of “Tehran’s diplomatic compound in Damascus, Syria,” killing seven Revolutionary Guard commanders, may prove “the first shot in a dangerous regional war.”
“Israel had been likely content to eliminate Hamas as a threat and militarily check Hezbollah as needed in Lebanon,” but if Biden won’t let Israel “beat Hamas in Rafah, Israel will cut its roots in Iran and Lebanon, starving the terrorist organization and its affiliates in Gaza.”
Give Israel “the latitude it needs to destroy Hamas in Rafah. Otherwise, Jerusalem may be forced to finish the job in Tehran.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board