Retribution Execution, Con't

Blaming China for both COVID-19 and for economic damage from tariffs that the US is imposing on Chinese goods by making US businesses and consumers pay for, Team Sore Loser is drafting a pile of good old-fashioned executive order protectionist Occidentalism to dare Joe Biden to reverse, proving he's a puppet of Beijing or something.

President Trump will enact a series of hardline policies during his final 10 weeks to cement his legacy on China, senior administration officials with direct knowledge of the plans tells Axios.

Why it matters: He'll try to make it politically untenable for the Biden administration to change course as China acts aggressively from India to Hong Kong to Taiwan, and the pandemic triggers a second global wave of shutdowns. Watch for National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe to publicly describe in granular detail intelligence about China's nefarious actions inside the U.S.

Details: Trump officials plan to sanction or restrict trade with more Chinese companies, government entities and officials for alleged complicity in human rights violations in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, or threatening U.S. national security. The administration also will crack down on China for its labor practices beyond Xinjiang forced labor camps. But don't expect big new moves on Taiwan or more closures of Chinese consulates in the U.S., officials say.

National Security Council spokesperson John Ullyot told Axios, "Unless Beijing reverses course and becomes a responsible player on the global stage, future U.S. presidents will find it politically suicidal to reverse President Trump’s historic actions."

Behind the scenes: Senior administration officials are discussing expanding a Defense Department list of Chinese companies deemed to have ties to the Chinese military. An executive order issued last week barred U.S. investment in 31 such companies, and any additions would likely face a similar restriction. 

Officials plan to target China's growing use of forced labor in the highly competitive fishing industry. Coerced and unpaid labor isn't just a human rights concern — it can also give Chinese fisheries an advantage over rivals in an industry with geopolitical significance. Trump officials have been looking to move more hawkish China experts into senior roles across the government, another senior official added.

What they're saying: "Director Ratcliffe will continue playing a leading role, in coordination with other national security principals, in delivering a necessary mindset shift from the Cold War and post-9/11 counterterrorism eras to a focus on great power competition with an adversarial China," DNI senior adviser Cliff Sims tells Axios.

This is Trump 101 right here: sabotaging and sandbagging the Biden administration with an aggressive new anti-China policy that Biden can't touch without handing Republicans exactly the excuse they need to attack him on Day one. It's a crafty plan, forcing Biden to spend his election political capital on cleaning up deliberate Trump messes rather than concentrating on Biden's actual policy goals. 

Considering Biden will almost certainly have to have some GOP cooperation on a COVID-19 package on day one that he takes office, it's a hostage-taking situation that should look depressingly familiar to all of us after the last six years of the Obama administration.

Expect a lot more of this level of international and domestic sabotage in the weeks ahead. As I've been saying for months, Trump can do an impressive amount of damage in the last two months he's in office to drown an incoming Biden team in multiple crises that would all but guarantee the first year or two of Biden's term would be nothing more than firefighting while Republicans cut the hoses.