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May 18, 2026 12:00 AM

Anthony Scaramucci Says China Built Its Military And Became A Superpower On 'Back Of Deals' After WTO Entry: 'They Took Our Technology…

SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci says America’s decision to grant China permanent normal trade relations and World Trade Organization membership was a costly strategic miscalculation.

Strategic Blindness At The WTO

After the U.S. signed a bilateral trade agreement with China in November 1999, Congress passed the United States–China Relations Act of 2000, granting Beijing permanent normal trade relations, and on Dec. 11, 2001, China formally joined the WTO.

According to Scaramucci's Sunday X post, China entered as an emerging market, protecting its own economy with tariffs while exporting to the U.S. with few restrictions. "We were too arrogant to question it," Scaramucci wrote on X.

We let China into the WTO and gave them permanent normal trade relations.They came in as an emerging market, meaning they could protect their own economy with tariffs while selling into ours essentially unfettered.The theory in 1999 was that China would get wealthy, rise… pic.twitter.com/KXicEednTo

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