The-Ave.US

Despite Trump’s bizarre lashing out with tariff threats at the EU, India, Vietnam, and even Japan, the rumor is that Xi and Trump will announce a truce when they meet around noon Saturday in Osaka.

This announcement was predicted here n TA.   China has been building economic defenses against this sort of  American warfare even before Trump became President.  The Silk Road Initiative creates worldwide alliances for the corporate state while the US, under Trump, is fighting trade wars with our former allies. Meanwhile Apple has just announced that it is moving production of its top computer from the US to China! Trump’s 19th century view of economics has little to do with the reality that China is now a more advanced manufacturing economy than the US.

The rumor, from the Chinese press. is that Trump will back down and suspend his tariff war for three months, supposedly to allow more negotiations.  Xi will help Trump play this as a mutual decision but Trump, under election threat, has been told that the US economy is showing ominous signs, with some projecting that it could fall into a recession as soon as the end of this year or early next year.

Besides rumors of a truce and threats against other economies, two days ago, Trump said he was expecting a “productive meeting,” but added, “who knows?”  The Chinese view seems more empirical.   Geng Shuang, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said the working teams from both sides are in close contact on preparation for the meeting. He also urged the US side to meet China halfway and jointly work toward “positive results” from the meeting.  “The fox may turn gray, but never kind,” said Mei Xinyu, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation. “Wielding the stick before negotiations is a typical trick of Trump. The regrettable thing is that after all these while, they still haven’t realized that it will not work with China. Basically, there is no support for Trump both domestically and globally other than his circle of extremist advisers [like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Lighthizer], whereas China is making more friends.”