Meanwhile, the trade war declared by the U.S. president on China isn't expected to subside. On the contrary, two weeks before the G20 summit in Osaka where Donald Trump and Xi Jinping may possibly meet, the American president continues to intimidate China with new tariffs on all remaining imports in a brutal, cowboy manner. He's been making threats since Monday.
Donald Trump: "If the United States can't agree with China, the U.S. will impose duties on Chinese goods for a total of $325 billion".
At the same time, Trump is sure that the Chinese will sign a new trade agreement with America because they'll have to. In response, official Beijing demonstrates confident calmness and continues to insist that negotiations be conducted only on equal terms, otherwise the U.S. will be opposed in a decisive manner.
How is the cyclopean fight going? Alexander Balitsky tried to figure that out.
With the excitement typical of the Chinese, they play a game of Xiangqi. The basic principle in Chinese chess is to competently build defenses, that is, to force the enemy to go on the offensive and wait until the enemy has one or two weak spots, and then hit them swiftly. This rule of Chinese chess is clearly not typical of Western games: constant attacks are equal to defeat. The players immediately drew an analogy.
"As the great helmsman Mao used to say, they don't attack me — I don't attack anyone, but if I'm attacked, I'll have to answer. Therefore, no matter whether it's the USA or anyone else, in all these trade wars, we adhere to the principles of Chinese chess".
In this sense, Trump has already lost a game of Xiangqi as he went on the offensive again — he promised to levy duties on the remaining Chinese exports if the negotiations with Xi on the G20 in Japan don't follow his scenario.
- Will you be insulted if Xi Jinping doesn't attend the G20 summit?
Donald Trump: "No, I never feel insulted. I've learned not to feel insulted".
Steven Mnuchin, Secretary of the Treasury: "We're ready to move forward on the terms that we proposed if China wants to move toward a deal. If China doesn't want this, then President Trump will only be happy to impose tariffs".
Both the secretary of the treasury and the secretary of state play along with Trump. Secretary of State Pompeo travels around the world with instructions, urging to refuse to cooperate with the Chinese IT giant.
Geng Shuang, Spokesman for the Chinese MFA: "Recently, Secretary of State Pompeo has been speaking about China wherever he goes. But all of his statements are nothing but lies. Take the situation with Huawei. The U.S. claims that Huawei and other Chinese enterprises pose a so-called threat to security. But the American officials haven't presented any convincing evidence of it".
The Chinese international radio called Pompeo's attacks "meaningless chatter", recalling how Pompeo himself, being the director of the CIA, taught his staff to lie. And Central Television once again explained to the Western viewer what propaganda in an American way is like.
"China is a predator, thief, and liar. Is it true? Wait, what? Yes, if you watch American news issues every day, all of them say how bad it's to live in China, how awful Chinese business is, and what a threat China poses to the USA. America wants to strangle Huawei. These preventive and destructive measures, which don't comply with the rules of international trade, are intended to support American business. This is a cold war in action".
The ban on the use of Chinese equipment as threatening to American national security has already caused a flurry of indignation in the USA. Telecom operators are perplexed.
Mike Kilgor, head of a telecom company: "It feels like a flight in a twin-engine jet plane when you decide to replace one of the engines at the height of 30,000 feet. Clearly, that's a stupid idea".
Common farmers are perplexed. In a remote town in Montana, only a Huawei tower provides communication with the outside world.
Kevin Rasmussen, farmer: "We had strong fires last year, and it has already happened a couple of times this year. Could we have reported that quickly without cellular communication?"
But in its spy mania, the White House reached the point that in every Chinese student — and there are about 300,000 of them in the USA — it saw a potential spy. Restrictions on the issuance of visas also affected ordinary tourists. This is a blow for the entire American tourism industry.
Chzhao Tsayuang, manager of a travel agency: "America began to request information about everyone in social media. We now don't recommend applying for a visa".
However, to get to America, the Chinese don't necessarily have to fly there. One hundred yuan for the entrance — and here are all the USA's iconic places. There are more copies of American attractions in this park of architectural miniatures than others. Here is New York's Manhattan, here's the Golden Gate Bridge over San Francisco, here is Niagara Falls. In this sense, the Beijing World Park is one big monument to the Chinese ability to copy. This is a skill, without which today's technological China wouldn't exist, where copying and imitation are in fact already a closed chapter.
The U.S. prohibited Qualcomm to supply microchips to the Chinese company. China created its own microchips. Google has threatened to leave it without Android — Huawei is preparing to introduce its own operating system.
Van Ivey, head of the Center for the European Studies at the Renmin University: "Huawei is a recognized leader in 5G technology. That's why the pressure from the U.S. is so high. Chinese companies understood that it'll happen sooner or later. Therefore, they began to prepare in advance. You need to build your own system if you don't want to depend on the United States".
What to choose: the iPhone or the Huawei Honor? This question doesn't really exist for the Chinese.
"People buy more Huawei phones than iPhones".
Now, it's time for American companies to get nervous. The National Development and Reform Commission of China has already made its blacklist of unreliable Western partners. They're Microsoft and Intel, Qualcomm and Samsung — and the list isn't complete. China can cut off from its technologies and markets. Beijing calls it a national security issue, too. Google, whose arms Trump first twisted, don't mind playing back.
Chzhu Tsyandung, professor of the Institute of Finance at Tsinghua University: "The U.S. imports 24% of its electronics from China. And Chinese processing industry accounts for 28% of the world's production. You take 28% of the global chain, and this is a catastrophe".
Americans have already realized that American sanctions affect them as well. Here's a car-building plant in Chicago. There are Chinese parts and owner, but everything is assembled in America. For the first time from 1964, it's on the verge of stopping. 520 companies and 141 manufacturers' associations have signed the demand that Trump abandon tariff increases and sign a deal with China. Otherwise, they'll lose two million jobs, and there'll be additional expenses of $2,000 for every American family. At the same time for China, Trump's threats about the market and revenue losses didn't come true.
Gao Feng, Spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce: “Foreign investments in Chinese manufacturing have grown by 8.3%. This fully demonstrated the confidence of foreign investors in China's economy and market.”
In his attacks, Trump risks being alone. He fails even among the Republicans. The George W. Bush Foundation this week awarded a prize for state wisdom in U.S.-Chinese relations to former President Jimmy Carter. They passed the award through his son. It was under Carter that in 1979, the U.S. established diplomatic relations with China. Just two months ago, the patriarch of American politics wrote to Trump in detail, why, technologically, China beat the U.S.
"Since 1979 do you know how many times China has been at war with anybody? None. And we have stayed at war".
This idea seems to be borrowed from the rules of Chinese chess: don't attack. And Beijing intends to complete this game.
Alexander Balitsky, Mikhail Artyukhin, Denis Lisitsyn for Vesti Nedeli from China.
