8/13/2018

CHINA/DEFENSE/JOHN MCCCAIN/MILITARY/SPENDING/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “U.S. President Donald Trump signed a $716 billion defense policy bill on Monday [8-13-18] that authorizes military spending and includes watered-down controls on U.S. government contracts with China’s ZTE Corp and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd. Trump signed the law at the U.S. Army’s Fort Drum base in upstate New York on his way back to Washington after a 12-day working vacation at his golf club in New Jersey. The bill was named for one of Trump’s political critics, the ailing U.S. Senator John McCain of Arizona, but he did not mention McCain’s name. McCain said in a statement he was ‘humbled’ the bill was named after him, adding that it will address ‘a growing array of threats.’ Trump later made a reference to McCain at a political fundraiser in Utica, New York, knocking him – as Trump does repeatedly – for voting against a bill to repeal parts of President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare reform law last year. Even though Trump said the bill ‘is the most significant investment in our military and our war-fighters in modern history,’ Obama’s first three defense budgets were larger, when adjusted for inflation, according to Todd Harrison at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.”

Jeff Mason, “Trump signs defense policy bill with watered-down China measures,” Reuters, August 13, 2018 12:48 pm