What comes after phase one trade deal with communist China?

President Trump has secured a “Phase One” trade deal with Communist China. In exchange for promises of large Chinese purchases of U.S. agricultural products, some American tariffs are going to be foregone, others reduced. Wall Street is thrilled, seeing this accord as a pretext for making more money subsidizing Beijing. 

Nearly simultaneously, however, PRC Foreign Minister Wang Yi denounced the United States as the “troublemaker of the world” asserting that we had “launched deliberate attacks and defamation” against China over its “territorial sovereignty, national dignity and core interests” in a manner that’s “almost paranoid.”

We’ll see whether the new accord actually produces an economic windfall for American farmers and importers, let alone conduces to a Phase Two agreement that achieves the needed structural reform in China. What is clear, though, is that Phase One relieves pressure on an increasingly hostile and dangerous adversary.