FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

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U.S.-China Trade Talks Move Forward Haltingly

Dec. 14, 2018 (EIRNS)—The status of U.S.-China talks “is very complicated and fragile,” Helga Zepp-LaRouche commented yesterday in her weekly strategic webcast. Over the last 24 hours, in addition to China’s resuming significant purchases of U.S. soybeans, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce encouraged ongoing trade negotiations between the two sides. The ministry spokesman said that “The Chinese side welcomes the U.S. team to visit China for consultation and is open to visiting the U.S. for communication.”

However, a British-designed dark cloud continues to hang over the talks, both from the Canadian surprise detention of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, and the subsequent detention of two Canadians in China, as well as U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton’s Dec. 13 diatribe against China and Russia.

Chinese semi-official media such as Global Times have echoed the stern warnings coming from Chinese officials such as Foreign Minister Wang Yi, that China will not be bullied by such provocations as the arrest of Meng in Canada, at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice. Global Times yesterday quoted Zha Xiaogang, a research fellow at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, warning that a “new McCarthyism” may be emerging in the U.S., adding that “Some industry representatives even deemed the arrest as a long-term plan by the U.S. to curb China’s rise in high technology.” A second Global Times article warned:

“China and the U.S. are on the cusp of a political war, a conflict without smoke.... From whichever perspective one looks, Meng’s case seems to be related to a political war against China’s rise.... The current aim of U.S. strategy is to launch an all-out offensive against China, one that has been forged at all levels.... Canada must be clear that in the U.S. political war against China, if it picks the U.S. side, it will inevitably be injured by China’s counterattack.”