The US meets The Great Wall of China ..
and reels back dazed, bloody and confused.
It is now a big task to figure out where and how the US reports issues that were true before their visit, as if these issues are a result of the visit. They have nothing to report for their domestic audience and seemingly they are making it up faster and faster.
Bessent announces that China will help open the Strait of Hormuz as if the US in their negotiations managed to get this as a concession from China. Yet, China has consistently said that they they want the Strait of Hormuz open, and even proposed a 4 point plan to end the war. The US announces that China does not want the Iranian toll booth. But, China never said so and their ships pass without a hitch. So, this gets added on to announcements that China wants the Strait open, as if the US secured a concession of some kind. Prof Wolff discusses this in his first comment on Dialogue Works today and his language is rich: childish junk, made for naive people.
The final one from Bessent is a ‘Trust Me Bro’ doozy: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC that China “will be working behind the scenes” to help restore access to the strait. Subtext: We’ve done it, but you won’t see it.
The Chinese Spokesperson Guo Jiakun received a question as part of the regular press conference yesterday:
AFP: Delegations from China and the United States held trade talks in South Korea today. Can the foreign ministry share any details on what was discussed ahead of Donald Trump’s visit here?
Guo Jiakun: I would refer you to the competent authorities for information about the China-U.S. trade talks.
There is no word of any trade discussions in China’s Trade and Commerce Ministry. There were discussions, but seemingly MofCom does not consider them worth publishing, at least so far: https://english.mofcom.gov.cn/
Trump’s delegation secured an order for Boeing for the purchase of 200 airplanes, it is said. Yet so far, there is no announcement from China, so, we have to take this as ‘vaporware’.
Rubio, rechristened: Make no mistake—the toxic “Senator Rubio” is still banned in China! Only the compliant “Secretary Lu” was granted the honor of breathing Beijing’s air. China wrote down (translated is more correct) his name as Marco Lu, to get a temporary workaround on their own sanctions. Of course, Secretary Lu does not exist, so whatever he said is gone with the wind. And Secretary Lu did say something: “US policy on Taiwan is unchanged as of today’ — Senator Lu. “It was raised — we make clear our position — we move on to other topics. We know where they stand… and I think they know where we stand”. Yet when Trump was questioned on Taiwan by a journalist, he turned his back and walked away and the word Taiwan did not pass his lips.
To Fox news, Trump rambled: “He said he’s not gonna give military equipment. That’s a big statement,” Trump told Fox News. He added that China wanted the Strait of Hormuz to remain open because it imports oil from the region. “He said they buy a lot of their oil there, and they’d like to keep doing that.”
Prof Marandi states again: “The trip to China offered Trump no leverage on Iran. He arrived with few cards and, predictably, left empty-handed.”
The general media is scathingly sarcastic on these US announcements that it creates a further problem. What is real and what is sarcasm? So far, it was all performative.
The cherry on this cake is when Trump in an action of massive ‘cope’, decided to tell everyone what Xi Jinping actually meant. (He actually meant Biden!).
And then Fox News tells us that China loves American food – Lasagna at Starbucks. “Once you get ’em hooked on American Fast Food, it is over. We can pretty much do what we want.”