China always lose in negotiation with the Americans, at least till now. The Americans approach every negotiation from a position of strength, and the formula is very simple. For example, if the Americans want 10 items from China, they would slam China with 20 items before the negotiation, like bans or sanctions. The Chinese will come to the negotiation table to ask for 10 items in return for giving the Americans 10 items they demanded. The Americans give up 10 items for 10 items from the Chinese. Superficially it seems fair, 10 for 10. In reality the Chinese give up 10 items for nothing, and the Americans get 10 items plus another 10 items they put up before the negotiation, ie the Americans get 10 + 10 items.
This kind of negotiation has been going on for ages, with the Chinese looking silly and the Americans patting themselves on their backs and laughing at the stupidity of the Chinese, treating the Chinese as simpletons, country bumpkins. The Chinese have no choice as they were weak and depending a lot on the Americans.
Today, China is no longer the weak and silly country bumpkins. Would China still accept such negotiating formula and walk out looking silly to the Americans after every negotiation? Were the Chinese really that stupid or just have to accept the short end of the stick in the past and would no longer want to continue with this one sided game?
The latest negotiation in Geneva ended with a temporary deal. Immediately after the deal, the Americans slammed China with new sanctions on chips and also imposed a world ban on the use of Huawei chips, dictating to all countries not to use Huawei chips or be charged for violating American laws. A few days later, Trump is accusing China of not following up with the agreements and not selling rare earth to America.
What is going on? What were really agreed upon in the Geneva deal? The Americans had slammed China with hundreds of bans and sanctions since the start of this trade and tariff war. And China only responded with the ban on rare earth sales. Did China agree to resume sale of rare earth and gets nothing from the Americans in return? What about the Americans lifting the ban on chips sale to China? Even this alone is not enough. China should demand the Americans to withdraw all sanctions and tariffs in return for the sales of rare earth. For this is the only item China threw at the Americans in response to the hundreds of items the Americans thrown at China, including banning Chinese students in American universities.
If China does not demand to return to square one, and accept a quid for quo, ie one item for one item, it is returning to the old formula used by the Americans mentioned in the introduction paragraph above.
China's one item, rare earth ban is against the hundreds of items the Americans slammed at China. For Americans not to withdraw the rest of the bans and sanctions, China is again the losing party, the fool that the Americans have made them out to be for centuries. This must change. China must not accept the old American formula and be cheated over and over again from a position of weakness and be laughed at by the Americans and the whole world as fools and simpletons.
Hope the Chinese would not fall into the same trap in the London Talk and negotiate only about what is in front of their nose and forget about how it all started and be happy with taking two back forgetting that the Americans have grabbed a hundred items from them. The negotiation must start from the Chip War and the Americans must roll back everything from square one. China should not go for a quick settlement.