‘Zero-sum’ game between China and the rest of the world

Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Peter Navarro, director of the National Trade Council.

Peter Navarro, one of President Donald Trump’s top trade advisors, said Thursday that China is in a “zero-sum game” with the rest of the world when it comes to trade.

Navarro, who spoke to CNBC’s Joe Kernen on “Squawk Box,” is known for his hawkish economic stances on China. Under Trump, the U.S. has engaged in an escalating trade war with China, as both nations have issued and threatened billions of dollars of tariffs on each other’s products.

“We have to defend ourselves,” Navarro said, citing Chinese theft of U.S. intellectual property on technology. “They’re attacking our crown jewels. They make no bones about it.”

Recently, Trump threatened to impose new tariffs on $200 billion of products from China as the U.S. pushes the country to take a harder line on protecting intellectual property. Larry Kudlow, Trump’s top economic advisor, said on Wednesday that Chinese President Xi Jinping was holding up progress and refusing to budge over his country’s trade policies. In turn, China’s foreign ministry denounced Kudlow’s remarks as “bogus” and “beyond imagination.”

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