As is so often the case with President Trump, chaos in the White House can drown out instances when his instincts are actually on the money.

As Washington Post columnist Fareed Zakaria acknowledged last week, “… let’s be honest – on one big, fundamental point, President Trump is right: China is a trade cheat.”

Zakaria points to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s report to Congress on China’s compliance with global trading rules, which lays out the formal and informal ways China stifles foreign firms from competing in China’s market.

Zakaria adds: “Foreign banks often have to operate with local partners who add zero value – essentially a tax on foreign companies. Foreign manufacturers are forced to share their technology with local partners who then systematically reverse engineer some of the same products and compete against their partners. And then there is cybertheft. The most extensive cyberwarfare waged by a foreign power against the United States is done not by Russia but by China. The targets are American companies, whose secrets and intellectual property are then shared with Chinese competitors.”