



After defying world opinion to impose the national security law on Hong Kong, Beijing has suddenly started trying to soften its international image. Politburo member Yang Jiechi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi have recently made conciliatory-sounding speeches, seemingly trying to arrest the deterioration in relations with the United States and others.
The logic behind this shifting of gears is probably complex, but an important component must be to rein in relations with Washington. As I told some scholars in China during a recent webinar, the upcoming US presidential election seems to offer both good and bad news for China. Beijing is trying to head off the bad news.
If you have trouble imagining what the good news might be, amid systematic efforts by the Trump administration to decouple the two countries, think about the US election. Despite four major speeches from cabinet-level officers, a host of executive orders and endless tweets from President Donald Trump, the American public remains focused on three major sets of issues: social disorder, the Covid-19 pandemic and the sorry state of the economy and employment. China is not high among them.
Since April, Trump and his team have tried to shift responsibility for the epidemic’s effects to China and its behaviour when the virus first appeared. Despite Trump calling it the “Chinese virus” and the “kung flu”, the American public is far more focused on his mismanagement of the pandemic and its effects at home than on Beijing’s responsibility for it. It’s quite a statement about Trump’s degree of mismanagement that efforts to stick the blame on China have failed.
This is where the bad news comes in. China has avoided moving to the top of the US election agenda partly because voters traditionally focus on domestic conditions and not foreign affairs during elections. The current triple-headed crisis will be difficult to dislodge.
The potential for that to change and China to become a central issue cannot be discounted, though. As the Pew Research Centre reported in late July, 73 per cent of US adults say they have an unfavourable view of China, up 26 per cent since 2018. The coronavirus and its effects have combined with rising authoritarianism, trade disputes and news from Hong Kong and Xinjiang to erode opinion towards China.
Anecdotally, I can attest that ordinary voters, whether for or against Trump, often say that at least he has tried to produce a long-overdue reset in relations with China. This is mirrored in the widespread notion that relations with China are due for a change, though not about exactly how to do so.
In this context, Beijing would be smart to call off its recent “wolf warrior” diplomacy and set a lower-key tone for its public rhetoric. Why? It would not take much more for all the anti-China sentiment to coalesce into an issue that Trump can use to change the topic from his mismanagement of the virus to China’s responsibility for the harm to the US population and economy.
If Trump succeeded in dislodging one or two of the major issues working against his re-election and put the focus on China, there would be no relief coming for Beijing from his Democratic opponent, former vice-president Joe Biden. The competition would more likely to be over who could be tougher on Beijing.
Between now and November would be an inauspicious time for tensions to rise suddenly in China’s activities with Taiwan, India or in the South or East China seas. It might help to avoid being seen as excessively draconian with Hong Kong and Xinjiang, as well.
Lo and behold, China has dialled back its fiery rhetoric in the past two weeks, especially from the representatives of the Foreign Ministry. Beijing only ritually protested at the arrival of a US cabinet secretary in Taiwan, an event perhaps intended to provoke a stronger response. Troops have disengaged on the Line of Actual Control with India, and Chinese fishermen have been ordered to stay out of waters of the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands.
Washington’s hardened position on Beijing’s claims in South China Sea heightens US-China tensionsWashington’s hardened position on Beijing’s claims in South China Sea heightens US-China tensions
Beijing is not out of the woods yet. Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have suggested there is more to come in efforts by the administration to dismantle relations with China. It might be argued that some of Trump’s China hawks already see the writing on the wall for his defeat, believing now is their last chance to leave a legacy of significantly reducing relations with China.
The hawks have less than three months before the election to raise the ante, and a strong Chinese reaction could give them a win-win. They would win if Trump regains an electoral advantage over Biden, or they could win if they leave Biden a mess to clean up.
Douglas H. Paal 包道格 is a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He previously served as vice-chairman of JPMorgan Chase International (2006–2008) and was an unofficial US representative to Taiwan as director of the American Institute in Taiwan (2002–2006).
https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3097971/us-china-relations-beijing-wise-ease-tensions-trump-seeks-election
PROTOCOLS OF THE MEETINGS OF THE LEARNED ELDERS OF ZION
PROTOCOL No. 1
The resolution by Senator John Cornyn, who is the Republican Senate Majority Whip, and Senator Mark Warner, who is ranking member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, follows instances of Chinese military forces harassing Indian patrols as well as increased troop deployments and infrastructure construction in contested areas.
These two morons on 8-14-20 introduced a resolution in the Senate condemning China’s aggression towards India to change the status quo at the Line of Actual Control between the two Asian giants.
MAY 27, 2008
On 20 June, Trump’s dismissal of the prosecutor, Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States attorney in Manhattan. Exactly 2 months later, Audrey Strauss, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Philip R. Bartlett, Inspector-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the United States Postal Inspection Service (“USPIS”), announced the unsealing of an indictment charging BRIAN KOLFAGE, STEPHEN BANNON, ANDREW BADOLATO, and TIMOTHY SHEA for their roles in defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors in connection with an online crowdfunding campaign known as “We Build the Wall” that raised more than $25 million. The defendants were arrested this morning. KOLFAGE will be presented today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Hope T. Cannon in the Northern District of Florida. BANNON will be presented today in the Southern District of New York. BADOLATO will be presented today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Wilson in the Middle District of Florida. SHEA will be presented today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Kristen L. Mix in the District of Colorado. The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres in the Southern District of New York.
Bannon has pled not guilty to charges of wire fraud and money laundering. He has been freed on a bond of $5 million and ordered to remain in the US pending trial.
After Trump’s 2016 election victory, Bannon boasted that he was the Tudor Thomas Cromwell of England
“Blocking Huawei is ten times more important than reaching a trade deal”.
“China has become America’s greatest enemy”.
“For me, economic war with China is everything”.
” Racism is a must-win and the president should not distance himself from white supremacists.”
In China, Bannon is called “the living fossil of paranoid madness” because his attitude toward China can no longer be described as hostility. It can be said to be hysterical, or even insane. He once claimed that the China-US trade dispute was a “fundamental clash.” Bannon simply has no idea about the globalized world and the complexity of major power relations. He is trying to make greed and fear the basic guideline for the US’ China policy, according to some Chinese observers.
Trump, when asked about the arrest of former adviser Bannon, said, “I feel terrible. I haven’t dealt with him in a long time. I haven’t dealt with him at all, I don’t know anything about the program. It’s very sad and surprising for Mr. Bannon.”
Bannon called his arrest a “political hit job” and vowed to fight the charges against him of fraud tied to a fundraising campaign purportedly aimed at supporting Trump’s border wall.
The PLA likely sent warships, warplanes, used radar installations and satellites to track the US warship’s movements in the Taiwan Straits, and the US vessel would be stopped if it crossed the red line, exactly what the Americans are expecting to happen with their provocation.
The Chinese mainland must be fully prepared for the worst. We surely do not want a war now. But we should be the one that is least afraid of the situation spiraling out of control as we are defending the territorial integrity.
Then,
Banned by Facebook and Youtube. Download it before this one is gone too. Beliveable or not? It is American. It put the creator in the spotlight. I have no time to waste on craps.