Thankfully, NEC Chairman Larry Kudlow knows the dance with the dragon is well beyond his advanced skill-set.  Kudlow is too earnest to enter the cunning matrix of deception as it pertains to Beijing’s geopolitical strategies, Chairman Xi Jinping and President Trump.
As such Kudlow speaks in distant terms while allowing the ‘killers’, specifically U.S.T.R. Lighthizer, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and President Trump, to engage as planned.

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Nuance and subtlety is everything in China. Culturally harsh tones are seen as a sign of weakness and considered intensely impolite in public displays between officials; especially amid adversaries. Respect is earned through strength and cunning.
There is no doubt in my mind that President Trump has a very well thought out long-term strategy regarding China. President Trump takes strategic messaging toward the people of china very importantly. President Trump has, very publicly, complimented the friendship he feels toward President Xi Jinping; and praises Chairman Xi for his character, strength and purposeful leadership.  Trump knows how to play their panda/dragon games.
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It was ABSOLUTELY NOT coincidental that China sent a low level trade delegation to the U.S. at exactly the same time U.S.T.R. Lighthizer is conducting open hearings on Section 301 national security trade issues; which are specifically targeted toward China.
For the second time POTUS is using strategic deployment of sunlight on the relationship between Beijing and North Korea. President Trump is highlighting what has been hidden for decades.  China has structured the use of North Korean nuclear ambitions as the sword of Damocles over their economic adversaries in the West. China’s Chairman Xi Jinping controls the government officials that surround North Korea’s Chairman Kim Jong-un:

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These tweets, along with the earlier tweet. are serious business.  They are being fired directly into the heart of Beijing.  They are the mother of all truth bombs, and they take away the ability of Chairman Xi to deploy the hidden threat and DPRK control.
“Subtle” like a brick through a window. [More backstory available here.]  President Trump is removing the Panda mask to reveal the authentic nature of Chairman Xi Jinping.  Simultaneously Trump is trying to rescue Kim Jong-un from the clutches of the Red dragon behind the panda mask.
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited North Korea amid the backdrop of the U.S. -vs- China trade confrontation.  The geopolitical economic issues form the structural disconnect between the ongoing U.S. negotiations and the responses from China through their proxy province in North Korea.
Secretary Pompeo debriefs the media shortly before departing the DPRK; and expresses a generally positive disposition about the ongoing talks:

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However, unnamed officials, likely elements within the central North Korean government who are control agents for Beijing, send a more confrontational message at the conclusion of the meetings:

(AP) North Korea says high-level talks with a U.S. delegation led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were “regrettable” and has accused Washington of trying to unilaterally pressure the country into abandoning its nukes.

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When you plant your tree in another man’s orchard, you might end up paying for your own apples; it’s a risk you take…
….and President Trump knows how to use that leverage better than anyone could possibly fathom; because in this metaphor Beijing relies upon the U.S. for both the seeds and the harvest.  President Trump drops the $200b M.O.A.T (Mother of All Tariffs):

White House – On Friday, I announced plans for tariffs on $50 billion worth of imports from China. These tariffs are being imposed to encourage China to change the unfair practices identified in the Section 301 action with respect to technology and innovation. They also serve as an initial step toward bringing balance to our trade relationship with China.

However and unfortunately, China has determined that it will raise tariffs on $50 billion worth of United States exports. China apparently has no intention of changing its unfair practices related to the acquisition of American intellectual property and technology. Rather than altering those practices, it is now threatening United States companies, workers, and farmers who have done nothing wrong.

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Nuance and subtlety is everything in China.  Culturally harsh tones are seen as a sign of weakness and considered intensely impolite in public displays between officials; especially within approved and released statements by officials representing the government.

There is no doubt in my mind that President Trump has a very well thought out long-term strategy regarding China.  President Trump takes strategic messaging toward the people of china very importantly.  President Trump has, very publicly, complimented the friendship he feels toward President Xi Jinping; and praises Chairman Xi for his character, strength and purposeful leadership.

To build upon that projected and strategic message – President Trump seeded the background by appointing Ambassador Terry Branstad, a 30-year personal friend of President Xi Jinping.

To enhance and amplify the message – and broadcast cultural respect – U.S. President Trump used Mar-a-Lago as the venue for their visit, not the White House.  And President Trump’s beautiful granddaughter, Arabella, sweetly serenaded the Chinese First Family twice in Mandarin Chinese song showing the utmost respect for the guests and later for the hosts.

Why the constant warm messaging?

What is the purpose?

What does all this have to do with a trade confrontation?

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Author of “The Coming Collapse of China”, Gordon Chang, discusses the effect of President Trump’s tariffs on China and the epic battle ahead.  Last night China announced their feeble retaliatory actions – SEE HERE.  A professionally nervous Maria Bartiromo, frames a series of questions from the perspective of Wall Street.

Fortunately Gordon Chang understands the Red Dragon, and more importantly understands Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping’s geopolitical goals through economic conquest. Mr. Chang is one of the few people who appear regularly in media and know the truth behind the Panda Mask.

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People often talk about the ‘strength’ of China’s economic model; and indeed within a specific part of their economy -manufacturing- they do have economic strength.

However, the underlying critical architecture of the Chinese economic model is structurally flawed and President Trump with his current economic team understand the weakness better than all international adversaries.

China is a central planning economy.  Meaning it never was an outcropping of natural economic conditions.  China was/is controlled as a communist style central-planning government; As such, it is important to reference the basic structural reality that China’s economy was created from the top down.

This construct of government creation is a key big picture distinction that sets the backdrop to understand how weak the economy really is.

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We’ll see.  The red dragon has a tendency to say one thing publicly and manipulate another thing privately.  However, the baseline for China to take the role of Big Panda is the reception of Secretary Rex Tillerson’s “Four No” remarks on North Korea during his State Department briefing.

TILLERSON”S FOUR NO’S: The United States does not seek •regime change, •the collapse of the regime, •an accelerated reunification of the peninsula or •an excuse to send the U.S. military into North Korea.

So long as the ‘four-no’s’ remain visible and discussed in the international dialogue, the options for China are to comply or to be called out as a deceiving enabler.  The economic consequences for China to break the sanctions are looming and severely consequential.

BEIJING (Reuters) – China will pay the biggest price from the new United Nations sanctions against North Korea because of its close economic relationship with the country, but will always enforce the resolutions, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.
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POTUS direct confrontation is not reserved for domestic political enemies, it also applies to external nations threatening the U.S.  However, notice with each example there is an almost identical pattern: ♦An honest attempt at an open handed diplomacy; ♦a rebuke from the opposition in favor of the status quo; ♦a sincere appeal to reconsider; ♦time for reflection, contemplation and planning; ♦a final request not to engage in combat (today); ♦and then the hammer.
The sequence is always the same.

“foolish past leaders” … “We will no longer allow”..

China, the Big Panda, chose the Red Dragon approach and is positioned to feel the big hurt if they don’t take action…

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Nuance and subtlety is everything in China.  Culturally harsh tones are seen as a sign of weakness and considered intensely impolite in public displays between officials; especially within approved and released statements by officials representing the government.
Historic Chinese cultural policy, the totalitarian control over expressed political sentiment and diplomacy through silence, is evident in the strategic use of the space between carefully chosen words, not just the words themselves.
China has no cultural or political space between peace and war; they are a historic nation based on two points of polarity.  They see peace and war as coexisting with each other. China accepts and believes opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another.  Flowing between these polar states is a natural dynamic to be used -with serious contemplation- in advancing objectives as needed.
Peace or war. Win or lose. Yin and Yang. Culturally there is no middle position in dealings with China; they are not constitutionally capable of understanding or valuing the western philosophy of mutual benefit where concession of terms gains a larger outcome.  If it does not benefit China, it is not done. The outlook is simply, a polarity of peace or war.  In politics or economics the same perspective is true.  It is a zero-sum outlook.
Therefore, when you see China publicly use strong language – it indicates a level of internal disposition beyond the defined western angst.  Big Panda becomes Red Dragon; there is no mid-status or evolutionary phase.  Every American associated with investment, economics and China would be well advised to put their business affairs in order accordingly.
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Earlier tonight President Trump appeared on CNN for a live Townhall broadcast from New Hampshire.  CNN’s Kaitlin Collins, a graduate from 2014, was tasked by the network to be as annoying, combative and argumentative as possible in order to assist the pre-scripted narrative engineers.

However, in the CNN Green Room shortly before taking the stage, the rumors are this video played {Direct Rumble Link} WATCH:

2024 is MAGA burning the ships behind us.  This one is for all the marbles. This is not a place where tepid half-measures and gentlemanly pastels will suffice.  Get right with God, put on the armor, accept that you’re fighting like the third monkey on the ramp to Noah’s ark, and get comfy being uncomfy.  When your sword is short, step forward.

Our ally is anyone who stands beside us. Our enemy is anyone who doesn’t.  The new sons and daughters of the revolution are going to look completely different.

The Green Dragon Tavern may be a bar room, a cafeteria, a church gathering, a picnic table or a tailgate.  The assembly is not focused on the labels of the assembled.   The mission is the purpose… The fight is wherever it surfaces…. When you doubt yourself, remember the bloodline you come from – and stand tall.

Protect the kids.  Defend your family and community.  Be smart. Train your brain to be smart, think like an insurgent. Delicate sensibilities need to be dispatched like a feather in a hurricane.

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