Trump/Biden/Kissinger and Xi on China

[Randy W]

An ongoing topic - click here for Most Recent Post

in the NY Times

As Trump Bets on China’s Help on North Korea, Aides Ask: Is It Worth It?

 

Quote

The Chinese are among those most interested in a meeting between Mr. Trump and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, officials said, in part because that would put the onus for a solution on Washington, not Beijing. For the moment, though, the White House is more focused on getting China to put pressure on its neighbor.

 

Mr. Trump came into office promising to challenge China on a range of issues. But the imminent danger posed by North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs changed that calculus.

 

In April, he said Mr. Xi would be his partner in curbing Mr. Kim. Two weeks later, the Treasury Department declined to designate China as a currency manipulator, something Mr. Trump had promised to do during his presidential campaign.

 

. . .

 

Since then, there is scant evidence of a crackdown by Beijing on Chinese trade with North Korea. The Chinese government has not announced the shutdown of any major trading companies, nor have traders in Dandong, the Chinese port city on the North Korean border, reported any signs of movement against their companies. The North Koreans have fired 16 missiles this year, nine of them since the summit meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi.

 

“It is worrisome that the president seems to think he has convinced Xi Jinping to change course,” said Michael J. Green, a senior adviser on Asia in the National Security Council of President George W. Bush. “That’s the position he has staked out publicly, and it has huge implications for the region. He should not have oversold it.”

 

 

 

Mr. Trump’s quid pro quo has sowed concern in Japan and Southeast Asia, where officials are worried that the United States is muting its response to China’s aggressions in the South China Sea or could put off arms sales to Taiwan — actions that administration officials deny.

 

Edited January 27, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

in the WSJ. This time they mention Iowa beef - sounds good to me

 

U.S. Beef Is on Table Ahead of China Talks

Beijing promotes trade with America ahead of security dialogue in Washington

 

Chinese and U.S. officials are set to kick off an annual security dialogue on Wednesday that will address an impasse over North Korea’s missile development and nuclear program.

On the same day, the first shipment of American beef in 14 years is scheduled to arrive in Shanghai, following a breakthrough in trade relations. Members of a recent Chinese delegation to the U.S. pointed to this and other moves as a relative bright spot in a fraught relationship.

. . .

Mr. Wei just returned from a trade-focused trip with other current and former government officials to New York City and Des Moines, Iowa. He brought home an upbeat message on the progress of a U.S.-China 100-day plan to reduce trade friction.

The security dialogue that is opening with a high-level meeting in Washington on Wednesday was proposed by Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping earlier this year. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who will run Wednesday’s one-day meeting alongside Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi, has said the U.S. intends to focus on limiting North Korea’s nuclear program.

 

[Randy W]

. . . and in preparation for Trump's trip to China. In the SCMP, W/Bloomberg

 

Beijing courts Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner to forge closer ties with US, analysts say

Possible China trip could pave the way for US president’s upcoming visit

 

Wu Xinbo, director of the Centre for American Studies at Fudan University, also said a China visit by Kushner and Ivanka Trump would pave the way for the US president’s trip.

“It is possible that Trump may visit China as part of his tour to Asia in November for Apec and the East Asia Summit, but the timing would depend in part on the date of the 19th Party Congress,” Wu said, referring to the key leadership reshuffle in autumn. “So Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s visit is likely to take place in September or early October.”

 

. . .

 

Officials said the invitation came after a verbal offer from Xi during his trip to the Mar-a-Lago resort, and the timing would depend in part on the date of the party congress.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said on Wednesday at a regular press conference that China and the US had maintained close senior-level communications but did not confirm whether there were plans for the visit.

 

 

[Randy W]

in the SCMP

 

Trump calls Xi as tensions escalate over Taiwan, North Korea

 

 

 

Beijing has lodged protests following Washington’s announcement of the Trump administration’s first arms sales to Taiwan.

China has also protested against the blacklisting of a small Chinese bank accused of illicit dealings with North Korea.

Beijing was further infuriated last week with a bill approved by the US Senate Armed Services Committee that would allow regular stops by American naval vessels to Taiwan’s ports.

. . .

Robert Daly, the director of the Kissinger Institute on China at the Wilson Centre in the US, said Washington’s recent critique of China’s human rights record, its imposition of secondary sanctions on China, the arms sales to Taiwan and pending tariffs on Chinese steel exports to the US may represent a hardening of Trump’s views on China.

“They are a return to normalcy for American China policy. This hardening is in keeping with China’s long-term expectations for the relationship, but it disappoints China’s unrealistic short-term hopes for managing the Trump administration,” he said. “Of course, the Trump administration’s return to the mean in China relations could be as short-lived as its experiments with scrapping the one-China policy and cosying up to Xi Jinping. The relationship remains dangerously unstable.”

Richard Bush, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said the timing of the US moves was intriguing.

“The steps announced this week occurred a week after the first diplomatic and security dialogue between China and the US and [days] before Trump’s meeting with Xi in Hamburg. In a way, Washington is ‘laying the table’ for the summit,” he said.

 

[Randy W]

in the SCMP

 

Trump calls Xi as tensions escalate over Taiwan, North Korea

 

 

 

Beijing has lodged protests following Washington’s announcement of the Trump administration’s first arms sales to Taiwan.

China has also protested against the blacklisting of a small Chinese bank accused of illicit dealings with North Korea.

Beijing was further infuriated last week with a bill approved by the US Senate Armed Services Committee that would allow regular stops by American naval vessels to Taiwan’s ports.

. . .

Robert Daly, the director of the Kissinger Institute on China at the Wilson Centre in the US, said Washington’s recent critique of China’s human rights record, its imposition of secondary sanctions on China, the arms sales to Taiwan and pending tariffs on Chinese steel exports to the US may represent a hardening of Trump’s views on China.

“They are a return to normalcy for American China policy. This hardening is in keeping with China’s long-term expectations for the relationship, but it disappoints China’s unrealistic short-term hopes for managing the Trump administration,” he said. “Of course, the Trump administration’s return to the mean in China relations could be as short-lived as its experiments with scrapping the one-China policy and cosying up to Xi Jinping. The relationship remains dangerously unstable.”

Richard Bush, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said the timing of the US moves was intriguing.

“The steps announced this week occurred a week after the first diplomatic and security dialogue between China and the US and [days] before Trump’s meeting with Xi in Hamburg. In a way, Washington is ‘laying the table’ for the summit,” he said.

 

[Randy W]

in the NY Times and Xinhua - I don't think this is a surprise to anyone

 

Trump Warns China He Is Willing to Pressure North Korea on His Own

 

The precarious state of United States-China relations was captured by the way the two sides characterized the call. The White House said only that Mr. Trump had raised the “growing threat” of North Korea’s weapons programs with Mr. Xi. The Chinese, in a more detailed statement, said the relationship was being “affected by some negative factors.”

 

. . .

 

Chinese officials professed surprise last week when the White House rolled out three tough steps, back to back. It imposed sanctions on a Chinese bank, accusing it of acting as a conduit for illicit North Korean financial activity, as well as on a Chinese company and two Chinese citizens.

It approved the sale of $1.4 billion in weapons to Taiwan, which China regards as a breakaway province. And it labeled China one of the worst offenders in an annual State Department report on human trafficking.

. . .

Some former officials said the tensions between Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi were neither new nor particularly troubling.

“We’ve had similar dynamics under Bush, Clinton and Obama,” said Jeffrey A. Bader, a China adviser to President Barack Obama. “It’s not an either-or. We operate in a nether zone with the Chinese.”

 

 

 

Xinhua

 

Xi, Trump exchange views on G20 summit, Korean Peninsula via phone

 

Meanwhile, China-U.S. relations have also been affected by some negative factors, and the Chinese side has already expressed its position to the United States, Xi said.

The Chinese president also said that his country attaches great importance to Trump's reaffirmation that the United States will adhere to the one-China policy.

China hopes that the United States will handle the Taiwan issue appropriately in accordance with the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques, Xi said.

Xi stressed that both China and the United States need to control the general direction of bilateral relationship in light of the consensus they reached at the Mar-a-Lago meeting.

The two sides should also stick to the principle of mutual respect and mutual benefit, focus on cooperation and control differences in a bid to secure more substantial progress in relations between the two countries, Xi added.

Trump, for his part, said that the U.S.-China ties have a promising prospect and the two countries have broad common interests.

Trump reaffirmed that the U.S. government will continue to honor the one-China policy and its stance remains unchanged.

 

 

. . . and Global Times

 

Xi, Trump talk about pressing issues during phone call

 

"Trump has made the North Korean issue a bellwether for Sino-US ties and put too much pressure on China to solve the problem, which is naïve and unrealistic," Li said.

The Trump administration has chosen some key issues to intensify pressure on China, but it should also know that China shares common interests in solving the problem, Liu said, noting China's concerns on the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system in South Korea.

 

 

[Randy W]

https://www.facebook.com/ChinaPic/photos/a.558235270968533.1073741830.553929144732479/1372861349505917/



China Pictorial
19 mins ·

Trump’s China Visit: Steering China-U.S. Relations

At the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, U.S. President Donald Trump is making a state visit to China from November 8 to 10.

After the Cold War ended in early 1990s, Sino-American relations have become increasingly complex and occasionally turbulent. Presently, the international situation continues to undergo profound and complicated changes.

Thus, the Beijing meeting between the two heads of state carries great significance in terms of promoting the healthy and stable development of China-U.S. relations in the new era as well as the peace, stability, and prosperity of the Asian-Pacific region and the whole world. Read more:
http://china-pictorial.com.cn/trumps-china-visit-steering-china-us-relations

 

 

 

 

[Randy W]

A little human interest story/history lesson from the SCMP

 

The meaning behind Donald Trump’s cup of tea in a Forbidden City treasure hall

Xi’s dinner with the US president in the former imperial palace was much more than a meal

 

The couples took tea in the Bao Yun Lou, or Hall of Embodied Treasures, a Western-style imperial building erected in 1915 to store treasures from other imperial residences outside Beijing.

 

China’s Qing dynasty government had been forced to pay compensation to eight nations, including the United States, over the Boxer rebellion, an anti-foreigner movement from 1899 to 1901.

 

But the US agreed to cancel the debt and the Chinese government used some of the money to build the hall. The rest was used to create a scholarship for Chinese students studying in the US and to build Beijing’s elite Tsinghua University.

 

[Randy W]

from the SCMP

 

 

Donald Trump tweets from Beijing about his ‘unforgettable afternoon’ with Xi Jinping and Peng Liyuan

US president gets around the ‘Great Firewall’ to send his first Twitter message from Chinese soil

[Greg.D.]

Seriously doubt he roamed onto China Unicom and passed data over it. More likely very secure satellite and packet/TCP-IP

[Randy W]

Seriously doubt he roamed onto China Unicom and passed data over it. More likely very secure satellite and packet/TCP-IP

 

 

The Consulate has a Dept. of State IP address in Washington, D.C. No problem.

[Randy W]

in the SCMP

 

‘The Chinese have figured out how to play Trump’: Asian leaders go the extra mile to flatter US president

All presidents get red-carpet treatment abroad, but Trump’s welcome receptions have been especially grandiose

 

 

All presidents get red-carpet treatment abroad, but Trump’s welcome receptions have been especially grandiose. In Saudi Arabia earlier this year, Trump was greeted like a returning king, the roadways lined with his photo. In France, Trump was welcomed as an honoured guest at the annual Bastille Day military parade. Trump liked the display so much he proposed holding his own military-style parade in the US

But the most elaborate welcome may have come from China, which poured on the pageantry, beginning with an arrival ceremony that was lavish even by Chinese standards. Heads of state are usually given a low-key reception at the airport. Not Trump, for whom China’s ambassador to the US promised a “state visit, plus.”

 

 

[True Blue]

Apparently, Trump sent Melania to look over the "Original Wall" before he made an offer on it

 

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2017/11/melania-trump-great-wall-of-china

 

[amberjack1234]

Dazzle them with the bright work and baffle them with BS. Is an ole military saying. I see it still works.

Edited November 12, 2017 by amberjack1234 (see edit history)

[Randy W]

 

in the WSJ. This time they mention Iowa beef - sounds good to me

 

U.S. Beef Is on Table Ahead of China Talks

Beijing promotes trade with America ahead of security dialogue in Washington

 

Chinese and U.S. officials are set to kick off an annual security dialogue on Wednesday that will address an impasse over North Korea’s missile development and nuclear program.

On the same day, the first shipment of American beef in 14 years is scheduled to arrive in Shanghai, following a breakthrough in trade relations. Members of a recent Chinese delegation to the U.S. pointed to this and other moves as a relative bright spot in a fraught relationship.

. . .

Mr. Wei just returned from a trade-focused trip with other current and former government officials to New York City and Des Moines, Iowa. He brought home an upbeat message on the progress of a U.S.-China 100-day plan to reduce trade friction.

The security dialogue that is opening with a high-level meeting in Washington on Wednesday was proposed by Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping earlier this year. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who will run Wednesday’s one-day meeting alongside Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi, has said the U.S. intends to focus on limiting North Korea’s nuclear program.

 

 

 

 

WHERE's the BEEF !!?! I haven't seen any in any of the stores or on Taobao, except for the USDA Choice we've been buying all along in Nanning (it's BETTER than the Aussie beef anyway) - from Bloomberg

 

U.S. Beef Is Back on China's Shelves—But China Doesn't Care

 

At the Sam’s Club store in Beijing’s Shijingshan district, the chilled beef on offer is so dominated by Australian cuts -- marbled rib eye steaks to fatty oxtail chunks -- that many customers are oblivious to the few packs of U.S. meat available.

“I haven’t noticed the U.S. beef here,” said Hui Xue, who was shopping for steaks that he cooks once a week. Even if he had spotted the produce, it probably wouldn’t have gone into his cart. The American meat -- back in China after 14 years as part of a trade deal hailed by the Donald Trump administration -- was only available in little strips meant to be stir-fried rather than in larger hunks that can be sizzled on a cast-iron skillet.