The world is "shocked" that
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro made up a fictitious anti-China economist in his books, China's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, adding that it is absurd and dangerous to make policy based on lies.
The Chronicle of Higher Education reported last week that Navarro invented and quoted an economist named Ron Vara.
It said that according to Tessa Morris-Suzuki, an emeritus professor at
Australian National University, Vara's name had appeared a dozen times in six of Navarro's nonfiction books but no such person could be found.