Following Saturday’s meeting between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Japan, it is clear that Trump’s strategic use of tariffs to end China’s rampant illegal trade cheating and intellectual property theft is putting pressure on the Chinese to negotiate a more balanced trade agreement.

It’s about time we had a president willing to stand firm and bargain hard with China to serve our national interest. 

Trump’s tough stand and refusal to turn a blind eye to China’s misconduct has the potential to open the door to trade that is genuinely free and fair between the world’s two largest economies. This could lead to a sweeping trade agreement that would be one of the most important economic compacts in world history and benefit both nations for decades to come.

TRUMP, XI REACH PLAN TO RESUME TRADE TALKS, TARIFFS ON HOLD FOR NOW

In an important vindication of Trump’s refusal to surrender to Chinese pressure, he and Xi agreed to resume stalled U.S.-China trade negotiations. Xi appears to have finally realized that unlike past American presidents, Trump is a master negotiator who will not surrender to Chinese pressure tactics. As Trump has pointed out before, a bad deal is worse than no deal.

While the talks proceed and as a show of good will, Trump said he would not impose tariffs on an additional $300 billion in Chinese imports, as he had planned to do.

However, the U.S. president wisely said he will maintain tariffs he imposed earlier on $250 billion in Chinese products to keep the pressure on China to reach a fair trade deal with the U.S.  China imposed tariffs on $60 billion in U.S. products in response to Trump’s earlier tariffs.

“We discussed a lot of things, and we’re right back on track,” Trump said after he and Xi concluded their talks. “We had a very, very good meeting with China.” Trump said the talks went “even better than expected.”

Trump also said that Xi agreed that China will buy a “tremendous amount” of U.S. agricultural products. That’s great news for America’s farmers.

In return for China’s agreement to buy more from our farmers, Trump agreed to allow

American companies to sell products to Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies. That’s a plus for the U.S. because it brings money from China into our country and supports jobs for American workers.

You would think even Trump critics would acknowledge that the president has made great progress in getting China to the negotiating table and open to reaching a final agreement. But sadly, the days when Democrats would support a Republican president negotiating with a global competitor seem to be a distant memory.

Trump’s tough stand and refusal to turn a blind eye to China’s misconduct has the potential to open the door to trade that is genuinely free and fair between the world’s two largest economies.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., made the point Saturday following the president’s obviously successful trip to Japan. Schumer criticized Trump for supposedly giving up “one of few potent levers we have to make China play fair on trade” by agreeing that American companies can sell products to Huawei.

Of course, China isn’t going to enter into an agreement where it gets nothing in return. In any negotiation, you have to give something to get something.

So what exactly did Trump give?  As stated by the president: “U.S. companies can sell their equipment to Huawei” but only “equipment where there’s no great national security problem with it.” 

Trump neither conceded nor suggested that he was backing off plans to prohibit the import of Huawei equipment for U.S. 5G telecommunications networks. That issue is the main concern of America’s intelligence community.  

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There is nothing wrong with American companies generating more revenue to support American jobs by selling non-secure products to a large Chinese company. If that’s the best criticism Schumer and his allies have got, you have to feel pretty good about the way the negotiations are going for the Trump administration – and for America.

There will certainly be hard bargaining ahead to make long-overdue repairs to our trading relationship with China. We won’t know for certain if a deal will be reached until the talks conclude. But both parties are at the table and, importantly, all Americans can have confidence that President Trump will drive a hard bargain that prevents China from continuing to take advantage of our country with unfair and illegal practices.

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A judge on Thursday granted prosecutors’ request to reinstate a third-degree murder charge against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is charged in connection with George Floyd’s death.

MINNEAPOLIS ‘AUTONOMOUS ZONE’ JEAPORDIZES RESIDENTS AMID DEREK CHAUVIN TRIAL, POLICE ASSOCIATION SAYS

Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill added the charge after Minnesota’s Supreme Court denied an appeal from Chauvin Wednesday. Cahill had earlier rejected the charge as not warranted by the circumstances of Floyd’s death, but an appellate court ruling in an unrelated case established new grounds for it. Chauvin already faced second-degree murder and manslaughter charges.

Potential jurors in Chauvin’s trial return Thursday to continue the selection process. Five jurors had been seated by Wednesday after just two days of screening by Cahill, Special Attorney for the State Steven Schleicher and Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson.

The dispute over the third-degree murder charge in Chauvin’s case revolves around the conviction of another former Minneapolis police officer in the unrelated killing of an Australian woman. The appeals court affirmed Mohamed Noor’s third-degree murder conviction in the 2017 shooting death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond.

Cahill reiterated Thursday that Noor and Chauvin are factually different cases, but because the Court of Appeals has defined that third-degree murder can be targeted at a single person, the judge is bound by the law in Minnesota right now.

“I am granting the motion because although these cases are factually different – that is Noor and the case before us – I don’t think there is a factual difference that denies the motion to reinstate,” Cahill said.

“When the intent is directed at a single person, then third-degree murder may apply,” the judge continued, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. “Single acts directed at a single person fall within the gambit of third-degree … accordingly, I am bound by that.”

The state argued that the Noor affirmation established precedent for the third-degree murder charge under the circumstances of Floyd’s death. If the Minnesota Supreme Court had taken up Chauvin’s appeal, it might have meant months of delay in his trial. After their ruling, the Court of Appeals rejected as moot the state’s request to pause the trial pending the appeal.

Cahill finished by saying the third-degree murder charge reinstatement does not apply to the case against Chauvin’s three other co-defendants – Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao. Cahill will address that at a later date. They are scheduled for trial in August.

DEREK CHAUVIN TRIAL JUROR DISMISSED OVER CONCERNS GEORGE FLOYD RIOTERS COULD ATTACK HIS HOME

Floyd’s May 25 death last year sparked sometimes violent protests in Minneapolis and beyond, leading to a nationwide reckoning on race. In moments captured on cellphone video, Chauvin could be seen holding his knee against Floyd’s neck for about nine minutes.

Days after Floyd’s death, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office charged Chauvin with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. On June 3, 2020, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison added a charge of second-degree murder against Chauvin.

On Oct. 22, 2020, Hennepin County District Court upheld the charges of second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter against Chauvin – in addition to the charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter against his co-defendants. But Cahill dismissed the charge of third-degree murder against Chauvin at that time.

In a precedential opinion on Feb. 1, the Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld the conviction for third-degree murder of former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor in the 2017 death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond. The court also ruled that Minnesota’s third-degree murder statute is applicable in the case of force being applied to a single person, a summary provided to Fox News by Ellison’s office said.

In response, on Feb. 4, state prosecutors moved to reinstate the charge of third-degree murder. On Feb. 11, the district court denied the motion. The state filed a notice of appeal to the Minnesota Court of Appeals on Feb. 12. The Court of Appeals held oral arguments on March 1. On Friday, March 5, the Court of Appeals ruled that the district court erred in not granting the state’s motion to reinstate the charge of third-degree murder against Chauvin in the death of Floyd.

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On Wednesday, the Minnesota Supreme Court denied Chauvin’s petition for review of the Court of Appeals decision. In response, the Court of Appeals ordered judgment in its March 5 ruling to be immediately entered. On Thursday, the district court reinstated the third-degree murder charge. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.