China got involved in the mad Trump maelstrom in a couple of ways this week, firstly with the most powerful man in the world publicly asking China to investigate the business affairs of his (currently) most likely opponent in next year’s presidential election. China responded by publicly declining to assist, stating that it doesn’t interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. Secondly, Trump sent out tweets suggesting that a deal was possible to offset in whole or part the two-year-old trade war.
Chinese negotiators are in Washington and US stocks reacted with enthusiasm to the suggestion. But whether it amounts to anything, who knows. Our only thought is that Trump is clearly bent on distracting the world as much as possible from the impeachment process, and he might decide that a China deal is worth doing on that basis alone. In other areas, relations became more fraught with restrictions on more Chinese companies and on various Chinese officials, and the overall mood in Washington does not seem to be in favor of a rapprochement. But then the overall mood in Washington was in favor of continuing support for the Kurds, and look what happened.
Have a pleasant autumn weekend.
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