section_path: First Trump administration (2017–2021)/Director of Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy/China
section_name: China
paragraph_text: China
  
  According to Chaos Under Heaven, a book by Josh Rogin, Navarro was part of a group of officials that wanted Trump to "speed the downfall" of the Chinese Communist Party and that "believed in economic nationalism, the return of manufacturing from abroad, and the protection of domestic industries, even at the expense of free trade".: 27–28 In his 2021 book In Trump Time, Navarro wrote that he urged Trump to go "full Sudden Zen" and start an all-out trade war against China. He also described himself as a "one-man China hawk totally without power or allies in a White House filled with a symphony of Wall Street transactionalists and China dove appeasers". In 2018, Navarro was influential in pushing the Trump administration to initiate the China–United States trade war. After the start of the trade war, Navarro argued that no countries would retaliate against U.S. tariffs "for the simple reason that we are the most lucrative and biggest market in the world". Shortly after the implementation of the tariffs, other countries did implement retaliatory tariffs against the United States, and the World Trade Organization rejected the U.S. tariffs.
  
  Navarro clashed frequently with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who had a more moderate stance on trade with China; Navarro accused Mnuchin without evidence of having "made millions from Communist China." In May 2018, during a visit to China for trade talks, Navarro and Mnuchin started screaming and cursing at each other on the lawn in front of the Chinese government building where the talks were held after Navarro confronted Mnuchin because he believed that he had been excluded from certain meetings with Chinese officials. During the trip, which was his second ever to China, Navarro was described as having "acted strangely", including by insisting on keeping his luggage with him at all times, wanting sleep inside the U.S. embassy because he feared hotel surveillance and having "rudely refused to eat the food served to him in official functions".: 197
  
  In October 2018, Navarro supported a proposal by Stephen Miller to stop providing student visas to Chinese nationals, making it impossible for Chinese citizens to study in the United States. In August 2019, Navarro asserted the tariffs of the ongoing China–United States trade war were not hurting Americans. Citing extensive evidence to the contrary, PolitiFact rated Navarro's assertion "Pants on Fire." In September 2019, after Trump tasked him with combatting China's usage of international mail rates to more cheaply ship products into the US, Navarro successfully led a diplomatic effort to the Third Extraordinary Congress of the Universal Postal Union, where it agreed member countries could opt-in to self-declare their rates starting in July 2020. This agreement arose following repeated threats from the Trump administration to leave the UPU unless global postage rates were changed; at the summit, Navarro claimed that countries like China were unfairly benefitting from international delivery prices, particularly regarding e-commerce deliveries.
  
  In October 2019, Navarro defended the trade war with China, saying that the United States was "dealing with a strategic rival – and they are trying to buckle our knees". Navarro continued to advocate for trade restrictionist policies even while the administration was trying to reach a compromise in trade negotiations with China. Navarro worked with the DHS to initiate a crackdown on counterfeited and pirated e-commerce goods from overseas, and he promoted the administration's actions on the matter. Trump signed an executive order on the matter on January 31, 2020. In August 2020, Mnuchin and Navarro started a shouting match in the Oval Office in front of Trump about the fate of TikTok in what was described by The Washington Post as a "knockdown, drag-out brawl". Mnuchin began arguing that TikTok should be sold to a U.S. company, while Navarro demanded an outright ban on the app.
  
  On January 20, 2021, the Chinese government imposed sanctions against Navarro and 27 other Trump administration officials who "planned, promoted and executed a series of crazy moves, gravely interfered in China's internal affairs, undermined China's interests, offended the Chinese people, and seriously disrupted China-U.S. relations". The sanctions ban them from entering China, including Hong Kong and Macau, and restrict companies and institutions associated with them from doing business in China.
  
  According to Chaos Under Heaven, a book by Josh Rogin, Navarro was part of a group of officials that wanted Trump to "speed the downfall" of the Chinese Communist Party and that "believed in economic nationalism, the return of manufacturing from abroad, and the protection of domestic industries, even at the expense of free trade".: 27–28 In his 2021 book In Trump Time, Navarro wrote that he urged Trump to go "full Sudden Zen" and start an all-out trade war against China. He also described himself as a "one-man China hawk totally without power or allies in a White House filled with a symphony of Wall Street transactionalists and China dove appeasers". In 2018, Navarro was influential in pushing the Trump administration to initiate the China–United States trade war. After the start of the trade war, Navarro argued that no countries would retaliate against U.S. tariffs "for the simple reason that we are the most lucrative and biggest market in the world". Shortly after the implementation of the tariffs, other countries did implement retaliatory tariffs against the United States, and the World Trade Organization rejected the U.S. tariffs.
  
  Navarro clashed frequently with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who had a more moderate stance on trade with China; Navarro accused Mnuchin without evidence of having "made millions from Communist China." In May 2018, during a visit to China for trade talks, Navarro and Mnuchin started screaming and cursing at each other on the lawn in front of the Chinese government building where the talks were held after Navarro confronted Mnuchin because he believed that he had been excluded from certain meetings with Chinese officials. During the trip, which was his second ever to China, Navarro was described as having "acted strangely", including by insisting on keeping his luggage with him at all times, wanting sleep inside the U.S. embassy because he feared hotel surveillance and having "rudely refused to eat the food served to him in official functions".: 197
  
  In October 2018, Navarro supported a proposal by Stephen Miller to stop providing student visas to Chinese nationals, making it impossible for Chinese citizens to study in the United States. In August 2019, Navarro asserted the tariffs of the ongoing China–United States trade war were not hurting Americans. Citing extensive evidence to the contrary, PolitiFact rated Navarro's assertion "Pants on Fire." In September 2019, after Trump tasked him with combatting China's usage of international mail rates to more cheaply ship products into the US, Navarro successfully led a diplomatic effort to the Third Extraordinary Congress of the Universal Postal Union, where it agreed member countries could opt-in to self-declare their rates starting in July 2020. This agreement arose following repeated threats from the Trump administration to leave the UPU unless global postage rates were changed; at the summit, Navarro claimed that countries like China were unfairly benefitting from international delivery prices, particularly regarding e-commerce deliveries.
  
  In October 2019, Navarro defended the trade war with China, saying that the United States was "dealing with a strategic rival – and they are trying to buckle our knees". Navarro continued to advocate for trade restrictionist policies even while the administration was trying to reach a compromise in trade negotiations with China. Navarro worked with the DHS to initiate a crackdown on counterfeited and pirated e-commerce goods from overseas, and he promoted the administration's actions on the matter. Trump signed an executive order on the matter on January 31, 2020. In August 2020, Mnuchin and Navarro started a shouting match in the Oval Office in front of Trump about the fate of TikTok in what was described by The Washington Post as a "knockdown, drag-out brawl". Mnuchin began arguing that TikTok should be sold to a U.S. company, while Navarro demanded an outright ban on the app.
  
  On January 20, 2021, the Chinese government imposed sanctions against Navarro and 27 other Trump administration officials who "planned, promoted and executed a series of crazy moves, gravely interfered in China's internal affairs, undermined China's interests, offended the Chinese people, and seriously disrupted China-U.S. relations". The sanctions ban them from entering China, including Hong Kong and Macau, and restrict companies and institutions associated with them from doing business in China.