Steve Bannon was having a good summer aboard Guo Wengui's yacht, torching the CCP. Now both men are feeling the heat.
Illustration by Luis Grañena
On a Saturday morning, a month before he was arrested for fraud, Stephen K. Bannon was on the phone from somewhere on the Long Island sound, sounding triumphant and caffeinated as he celebrated America’s escalating rhetoric with China.
“This is a war plan, and it’s being executed upon,” he crowed, referring to the tough-on-China speech delivered a few days before by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the Nixon Library. To Bannon, it was a clear signal that China hawks like Pompeo and Peter Navarro, President Trump’s trade advisor, were winning the internal dispute in the Trump administration with “Panda huggers.” Bannon heard in Pompeo’s words echoes of his own anti-China messaging, which he has broadcast for months through frequent Fox News appearances and his daily podcast, “War Room: Pandemic.” Even though Bannon left his post as an adviser in the Trump administration in August 2017, he believed himself to be the true genius behind the new policy.
Exclusive longform investigative journalism, Q&As, news and analysis, and data on Chinese business elites and corporations. We publish China scoops you won't find anywhere else.
A weekly curated reading list on China from David Barboza, Pulitzer Prize-winning former Shanghai correspondent for The New York Times.
A daily roundup of China finance, business and economics headlines.
We offer discounts for groups, institutions and students. Go to our Subscriptions page for details.
A long line of multinationals are now knocking on India's door. But if there's any chance of them successfully diversifying away from China's highly skilled workforce and well-oiled logistical machine, they'll need to learn from the industries that came before them.
The former Defense Secretary under George W. Bush and Barack Obama talks about Xi Jinping's relations with the PLA, Taiwan and how the U.S. should deal with China and Russia.
The Global Intelligence Platform used by The Wire China