China will not buy soya beans to please Trump and sell out Brazil and Argentina

Exactly what I am thinking. China can agree, but to what extent afterwards is subject to how much China wants to give or to buy. China still holds all the cards or is making all the cards. This has already been the case with earlier negotiations over trade volumes, which did not move the needle over the trade imbalance. Which is why the USA now realizes that decoupling with China is problematic, while the Chinese do not feel the same way now.

Take the buying of soya beans that Trump is trying to force his hand against China. China has already inked long term soya bean deals with Brazil and Argentina and is not going to backtrack on those deals just to please Trump. It is not going to happen. Just token moves to buy some soya beans may result, but China will not sabotage Brazil or Argentina farmers by pulling the plug. Brazil is a BRICS backer, a de-dollarization partner and support by China for Brazil is going to be a long-term move. Brazil's President Lula even said that his loyalty will always be to BRICS.


Anonymous

Gaza War is not about Hamas but about genocide and chasing the Palestinians out of their homeland

The war was never about getting rid of Hamas. That was a good excuse. The war was about discreetly committing genocide, eradicating the Palestinians, seizing Gaza to benefit Israel and Trump's family.

The plan had been exposed by Steve Witkoff and the narrative being floated was for asking the Arabs to fund the rebuilding on the pretext of humanitarian reasons, but the Palestinians will not be going back to Gaza and that is for sure. That this was a plan floated two years ago, which just goes to show the real agenda of the USA and Israel.

After all, this just mirrors the genocide against the Native American Indians by the Anglo-Saxon Whites to seize their land. Now, what is the status of the Native American Indians? They never get back their land and have to live in concentration camps masquerading as reservations. They have to live just like the animals in reservations in Africa to protect them from humans, aka poachers.


Anonymous

Xi Trump Meeting - Did Trump get the message?

 For almost 10 months into his second term, Trump was telling the world that he wanted to meet Xi, but was met with total silence. Trump tried all kinds of antics to get Xi's attention but to no avail. He was almost crawling on his knees begging for this meeting. There is no one in the world that Trump would bother to take a second look.

Trump also has very serious business to talk to Xi. Everyone could see how stressed up Trump was when he landed in South Korea, still with no confirmation if Xi would want to meet him. Trump has all the farmers, his core supporters, crying and breathing down his neck. He cannot fail the farmers and needed Xi to buy all the soya beans in storage that will go bad very soon. Trump also has all the chips manufacturers, especially Nvidia, weighing down on him. The chips industry will face a crisis and leading to shutdowns or layoffs if they lose the China market. Then there is the bigger crisis of rare earths that is affecting almost all the tech and engineering businesses and most of all the military industrial complex and suppliers of weapons and hardware to the American armed forces.

Trump must meet Xi at all costs and cannot go home empty handed. He badly needs Xi to say yes to all his problems. 

Xi kept Trump waiting until the eve of the 30 Oct meeting to say yes. The hours and minutes Trump and his team were kept waiting must be nail biting. Can you imagine if Xi were to call off the meeting? Trump flew all the way to South Korea to wait for Xi, without any confirmation from Xi. He was so desperate that he was willing to take the risk of Xi not wanting to see him.

On the other hand Xi was nonchalance, uninterested. China's position to the trade war has been made known to the Americans, will fight to the end. China will decouple from the American economy. Meeting or not meeting Trump is immaterial. China could walk out of the meeting without agreeing to anything. China does not need to buy soya beans from the Americans. In a hostile trade war, China would not mind even to pay more for Brazilian soya beans. China does not need any high end chips from the Americans as well. They are producing their own. China is preparing to decouple and the high tariffs for Chinese goods would not mean much except a lower surplus in its trade with the Americans. 

Xi thus holds 3 Trump cards, pun intended, rare earth, not buying soya beans, not buying high end chips.  Trump really has nothing to offer to Xi other than a military confrontation. If Xi has stood firm, no meeting, or meeting but refused to buy soya beans, refused to buy high end chips, refused to sell rare earths, what is Trump going to do? Going home empty handed after flying all the way to wait for Xi and calling Xi his good friends?

After the meeting, Trump practically got everything he wanted. Xi gave him a big present that he could not dream off without a fight. Trump was so glad that he gave a 12/10 grading for the meeting. Trump can go home and with all the good news for his farmers, chip manufacturers and all the businesses that need rare earths. What Trump offered to Xi in return were nothing, miniscule, that Xi can do without. Lowering of 10% tariff? Xi could have told Trump to keep it. The tariffs were paid by the Americans. Holding back on more sanctions? Xi could have said to Trump, bring them on, China is working towards decoupling and self sufficiency. Nvidia chips? China does not need them anymore. China does not need to buy substandard Nvidia chips. This is the most foolish strategy of Nvidia.

Xi gave Trump a huge present that he could not have dreamt of. Did Trump get the message? Xi is telling Trump, he can be very nice and generous, caveat, if Trump behaves and stop the silly wars. The rare earth is conditional, one year is a trial period. Trump's visit to China in April, 6 months away, can be called off. China can also stop buying soya beans anytime it wants, if Trump continues with his silly wars. The American farmers would not want to mess around with China a second time. They know who butters their bread...China!

Would Trump get the message and reciprocate in kind? Xi will be watching every move of Trump in the following months, and all the deals could be dropped if relations did not improve. If the dimwits in Washington continue to beat their war drums and itching for war with China. China has won the first round with hands down. Just stopping all sales of rare earths would be enough to cripple the American economy and the economies of their allies. 

Cooperation, mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, working for mutual benefits in win win projects and trade are the way to go. Xi told Trump, working together with China could help him to succeed in making America great again. Trump can now have a nice peaceful sleep on his way home. He is very tired and deserved a good rest for working so hard, for taking all the stresses. May Trump have a good rest, sweet dreams and wake up wiser, and know who gave him a helping hand in time of distress, when the world is collapsing on him.

A side distraction. Modi is watching and so are the Europeans. Xi is the most important person that Trump would want to meet and call friend and could really extend a helping hand when in need. Trump is safe for now and can go on dancing and bragging and take on the Democrats with renewed confidence ... and make the world come kissing his ass. Caveat, not Xi.

Would Trump say a big thank you to Xi, his good friend in times of need?

CIA plotted to assassinate Modi at SCO Summit and to blame China

I came across a video, true or not, about a plot by the CIA to assassinate Modi at the SCO summit in Tianjin in August/September and to blame it on China. The plot was said to be uncovered by the Russians, which Putin relayed to Modi, even providing Modi with rides in his Russian 'tank' for protection. The USA, of course denied the allegations about the CIA plot. But we know there is no smoke without fire.

Worthy of note was that Modi was not present at the ASEAN meeting days ago, instead just addressing the meeting virtually. Malaysia is, to be blunt, not giving the kind of protection as in China for Modi. Modi was trying to avoid Trump to prevent any awkward confrontation. Was Modi being cautious now that a plot is on course to take him out? If the CIA is involved, things are not that simple. Even Duterte knows what the CIA can do to him while he was President of the Philippines and leaning towards China. His words - 'If I survive the CIA' tells the whole story of why he had to back off trying to cement relations with China. He was probably warned and he should be.



Anonymous

Dimwits Dutch and Americans find it too tough to think through a problem...and anyhow shoot

The Netherlands thought that seizing the headquarters of Nexperia in the Netherlands will enable them to control all the chips for the vehicle manufacturing sector in Europe and elsewhere, as was the motive. This was all done under the dictate of the USA, nothing else, just like the pressure exerted on ASML not to sell EUV machines to China.

The irony is that most of the chips made by Nexperia comes not from Nexperia in Netherlands or elsewhere, but from its Nexperia subsidiary in China, which the Chinese Government has now cut off from exporting. What the Netherlands did is a perfect example of cutting the nose to spite the face. It was a disaster in the making that the Europeans are now finding out.

I now want to talk about Mongolia also cutting its nose to spite its face. Mongolia has huge deposits of copper ores and planned to develop them to rewind its economy by opening up the Oyu Tolgoi copper mine to investors. When Mongolia first broached the idea, it specifically insisted that China should have no part to play in the copper mining ventures, a move to please the USA. But globally, no one outside Mongolia was much interested in investing in such a risky venture knowing that Mongolia is totally landlocked with transport infrastructures almost non-existent.

So, in comes Australia's Rio Tinto, hoping to make a killing for the company by selling the copper to China on its mind. It invested several US$ billions into the project. The first shock for Rio Tinto came when the Mongolian Government refused to allow Rio Tinto to run the mines by using cheap Chinese energy. It was to force Rio Tinto to build its own power generating plant, all in all investing about US$15 billion into whole project. The second shock came when the Mongolian Government stipulated that the copper extracted cannot be sold to China. That literally killed off the whole project, as Rio Tinto was all the time leveraging on selling to the Chinese market. These are all hurdles placed by the Mongolian Government just to please the USA. Now the whole project lies idle and the dream of jobs for the Mongolian people smashed.

This is not the only nose cutting job to spite the face made by the Mongolian Government. The oil pipelines supposed to run through Mongolia carrying Russia oil, the Power of Siberia 2 has now skirted Mongolia, which would have enabled Mongolia to earn transit fees for hosting the pipelines. China and Russia felt that Mongolia is too much under USA influence and not trustworthy and may sabotage the project when it is completed. Think of Nord Stream 2 and you will realize the magnitude of the risk.


Anonymous

PS. China can take back Outer Mongolia anytime without firing a bullet, and with the concurrence of Russia. Outer Mongolia is another sick Mickey Mouse intoxicated by American whisky.