C I T Y L I G H T S


countries. He recently revised his earlier work into a new book, The Com- ing China Wars: Where They Will Be Fought and How They Can Be Won. Death by China


C I T Y L I G H T S


and indus- trial policy.” This is likely to add to Bei- jing’s anxieties over Trump’s plans for U.S.- China relations. Elazar Advi-


Peter Navarro book reviews: “dramatic overkill,” “alarming and alarmist,” “inflammatory language,” “hyperbole”...


and the companion film got some malodorous reviews: “dramatic overkill,” “alarm- ing and alarmist,” “inflam- matory language and cheesy graphics,” and “hyperbole” were some of the media barbs heaved at it. True enough, both the book and documentary were jeremi- ads. The movie featured a bloody knife thrust into a map of the United States. Conventional economists


sneer at Navarro’s views. Most are in favor of free trade. They have no use for Navarro’s pushing for stiff tariffs. The last thing they want is a trade war in which countries erect barriers against other nations. And very few Americans favor combat with China or any other country. In one of his wisest


moves, Navarro got the 2011 book and the documentary into the hands of a TV star/ New York real estate tycoon, Donald Trump, who also doesn’t appeal to conven- tional scholars. Trump gob- bled up Navarro’s messages, seeing them as campaign fodder for a planned run for the presidency. When Trump tossed his hat in the ring in 2015, Navarro served as a policy advisor. After Trump was elected


president — using much of Navarro’s prose in the cam- paign — the professor hit the big time. After the elec- tion, Trump named Navarro to a new position: director of the White House National Trade Council. Navarro says that China


manipulates its currency to get an advantage over trade


sors, writing in Seeking Alpha, say bluntly, “A


Donald Trump: like Navarro, he doesn’t appeal to conventional scholars


partners; illegally subsidizes products; pays slave wages to labor that gets terrible medi- cal care; permits rampant pollution, thus cutting costs and taking further advan- tage of other countries; puts out products that are so cheaply made they can poison people; and cheats every other way it can. Trump also liked Navar-


ro’s 2006 book, which dripped with purple prose. Navarro wrote that “the raw stench of a gut-wrenching, sweat-stained fear” hangs in the air as venal and incom- petent Communist party officials are at the steering wheel. Whew! Says the Guardian, “The


Chinese government is a despicable, parasitic, bru- tal, brass-knuckled, crass, callous, amoral, ruthless and totally totalitarian imperi- alist power that reigns over the world’s leading cancer factory, its most prolific pro- paganda mill and the biggest police state and prison on the face of the earth. That is the view of Peter Navarro, the man chosen by Donald Trump to lead a new presi- dential office for U.S. trade


trade war is coming.” Elazar picks up some quotes from the Death by China video: “What’s wrong with taking China to task? They pirate our technology. They pirate our intellectual property rights. They counterfeit our goods and services and no administration has the back- bone to stand up to them.… When you shop, always read the label. If the label says ‘Made in China,’ think about your job, think about your safety, think about China’s rapid military buildup.” Ela- zar says that if Trump and Navarro get their way, the stocks of companies with major China business, such as San Diego’s Qualcomm (more than half its revenues come from China), will get hit, at least initially. In one of the ten videos


about possible war with China, Navarro says that China, the world’s larg- est country, could one day have a military that dwarfs that of the United States. This statement may well have motivated Trump to campaign for more mili- tary spending — particu- larly Navy spending. The Trump/Navarro


saber rattling has already shaken up China. Some say that with its economy slowing, China does not want a trade war. But with the Trump administra- tion saying that the United States won’t let China access American-held islands in the South China Sea, China is now suggesting it might beef up its nuclear arsenal. Navarro may have con- continued on page 27


C I T Y L I G H T S UNDER THE RADAR


Trumping tronc President Donald Trump hasn’t been drawing much support from the traditionally Republican San Diego estab- lishment, much of which derives a big chunk of change from its free-trad- ing ties to Tijuana and cheap manu- facturing. Another component of the city’s ebbing GOP passion has been 2015’s trans- fer of control of the Union-Tribune from Republican kingpin Doug Manchester to the Chicago-based newspaper chain now known as tronc, which has allowed the paper’s editorial- ists to veer left, including backing Hillary Clin- ton’s ill-fated presidential bid. “It was the first time since the founding of The San Diego Union in 1868 that the editorial board had endorsed a Democrat for president,” noted the paper’s opin- ion chief Matt Hall. But could the U-T’s year-long Prague Spring


Might Trump take up big media shareholder Patrick Soon-Shiong’s reported pitch to be the president’s “health care czar”?


lined up as one to condemn the Obama admin- istration for killing a tronc takeover deal for the Orange County Register and Riverside Press Enterprise on anti-trust grounds. “By consolidating back-end operations, we are able to save money in ways that don’t directly affect read- ers,” opined the Balti- more Sun. Added its sister, the Flor- ida Sun-Sentinel: “Partnerships and the acquisition of regional newspa- pers are helping metro dailies stay in


business and focus on what they do best: tell- ing people what’s going on locally.” Tronc’s failed Orange County deal, pronounced the U-T, “might have meant higher journalism standards and consolidations that could have preserved more journalism jobs.”


be cut short by the singular ambition of one of tronc’s biggest shareholders? The website STAT, specializing in news of the medical industry, has reported that Los Angeles billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong is lobbying Trump and associates to become the administration’s “health care czar.” He “was invited to meet the president and his team and had several meetings and discus- sions regarding health care issues of national importance, including the need to reform health care delivery rather than just payment,” Ronald Olson, a Soon-Shiong advisor is quoted as saying. Said to be worth


$8.8 billion from bio- tech stock-market plays, Soon-Shiong last year emerged as an ally in tronc chairman Michael Ferro’s battle against news giant Gan- nett’s aborted takeover bid. The pair are now the two top tronc stockholders, with Soon-Shiong controlling 16 percent and Ferro almost 25 percent. The U-T has insisted that its ideological slant is determined in San Diego, but the influential Soon-Shiong’s ambitions aren’t easily discounted, and some worry he could be using his purported sway over tronc’s newspapers as a selling point with fellow billionaire Trump. A precedent for such influence came last March when tronc-owned papers, including the U-T,


Gambling and plastic politics As food containers made of polystyrene continue jamming San Diego’s landfills, a maker of the ubiquitous plastic has been pouring money into the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce’s political action committee at a record-setting pace. A January 25 disclosure filing with the city clerk’s office shows that Dart Container Corp. of Mason, Michigan, kicked in another $20,000 to the PAC on October 25, matching an earlier $20,000 it gave in the first half of 2016. Dart wants recycling considered before San Diego bans the troublesome material, an option the city has resisted. To make its point, the firm has retained the services of lobbyist Clarissa Falcon to “include recycling of polystyrene food con- tainers in the City’s Zero Waste Plan.” Other special interests kicking in for the chamber PAC


Polystyrene manufacturer Dart Container Corp. gave $40,000 to San Diego’s chamber of commerce last year. Hmmm...


include LHR Investment Com- pany, backer of the failed Lilac Hills


Ranch ballot measure, with $15,000, on October 28 and Walmart Stores of Bentonville, Arkansas, $10,000 on October 27. Among the expenses


listed for the political action committee was a $7500 consulting fee paid to Stephen Puetz, chief of staff to Republican mayor Kevin Faulconer. The candidate drawing the most cash from the group, per the filing, was failed GOP city attorney hopeful Robert Hickey, who lost out to Demo- crat Mara Elliott. ...The GOP Lincoln Club col- continued on page 27


San Diego Reader February 9, 2017 3


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