Bannon’s departure was 'the best thing' for China, says US expert

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‍US President Donald Trump’s chief strategist and one of his most controversial advisers, Steve Bannon, no longer works in the White House. Before his departure on August 18, Bannon had declared in an interview that the US was in an economic war with China and he promised aggressive trade action against Beijing. So will China be happy to see the last of him?

For Rick Dunham, former president of the National Press Club in Washington, DC, Bannon’s departure was "the best thing" that could happen for China, since Xi Jinping met Donald Trump in Florida in April.

Bannon "was doing all he could in the administration to push for trade sanctions. Although he is not the only person who is critical of China, he is different from anyone else in Trump’s administration for he believes China is a danger to the world,” Dunham told CGTN's The Point with Liu Xin.

Unlike others in the administration who believe that trade between the US and China is unbalanced, Bannon's ideas are based on a very strange ideology, Zhao Hai, a research fellow at the National Strategy Institute of Tsinghua University meanwhile noted.

“He believes that China and the US will battle each other for hegemony down the road 25 to 30 years from now,” Zhao explained.

Bannon’s favorite book is said to be Sun Tzu’s "The Art of War" – a Chinese classic of military strategy. But he took away the wrong lessons from it, according to Dunham. “He missed the big picture, which really is be able to win the war without fighting a battle.”

Bannon’s zero-sum game idea belongs to last century, Zhao also noted recommending that Bannon should read another Chinese classic, ‘The Analects of Confucius’.

“Confucius said ‘if we have friends coming from afar, is it not joyful?’,” Zhao concluded.

The Point with Liu Xin is a 30-minute current affairs program on CGTN. It airs weekdays at 9.30 p.m. BJT (1330GMT), with rebroadcasts at 5.30 a.m. (2130GMT) and 10.30 a.m. (0230GMT).