You might remember secretary of State Rex Tillerson had a schedule conflict between a NATO meeting of Foreign Ministers and the first state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to the U.S.   As a consequence NATO re-scheduled their summit.  That summit was held earlier today.

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Over the next several days we will be shifting focus from discussing the various DC intel angles and focusing more attention to T-Rex and President Trump in advance of a major week of international diplomacy. (more…)

In an effort to frame a Russian conspiracy narrative against Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Reuters has to ignore their own prior reporting 48 hours ago.
Reuters publishes an article citing Secretary Tillerson’s schedule and his decision not to attend a NATO summit in Brussels on April 5th and 6th, by citing Tillerson attending a Chinese state visit meeting in the U.S. scheduled for April 6th and 7th.

REUTERS – U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson plans to skip a meeting with NATO foreign ministers next month in order to stay home for a visit by China’s president and will go to Russia later in April, U.S. officials said on Monday, disclosing an itinerary that allies may see as giving Moscow priority over them.

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(Via Reuters) With warm words from Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson ended his first trip to Asia since taking office with an agreement to work together with China on North Korea and putting aside trickier issues. (link)  All lumps removed…


Chinese President Xi Jinping:

“You said that China-U.S. relations can only be friendly. I express my appreciation for this.” … “We both believe that China-U.S. cooperation henceforth is the direction we are both striving for. We are both expecting a new era for constructive development.” … “The joint interests of China and the United States far outweigh the differences, and cooperation is the only correct choice for us both.”

Secretary of State Tillerson:

“President Trump places a very high value on the communications that have already occurred, and he looks forward to enhancing that understanding in the opportunity for a visit in the future.” … “We know that through further dialogue we will achieve a greater understanding that will lead to a strengthened, strengthening of the ties between China and the United States and set the tone for our future relationship of cooperation.”

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Yesterday Japan, today South Korea, tomorrow China. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrived at Osan Air Base in South Korea to begin his day of official discussions and meetings with South Korean leaders, diplomats and policy makers.
The topic of North Korean aggression was the central topic of discussion and T-Rex pulled no diplomatic punches when he stated the U.S. policy of strategic patience with North Korea has come to an end.

That remark stands as a direct announcement of a change in policy position toward North Korea. “Strategic Patience” was the policy of Secretary Clinton and President Obama that yielded no benefit as North Korea continued testing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles throughout president Obama’s terms in office.
President Trump and Secretary Tillerson are taking a different path to shut down the hostilities and aggressions of the North Korean regime. We can anticipate Tillerson to forcefully deliver a message of expectation to China tomorrow. Expectation that China will step in and become more forceful in controlling the N. Korean provocations.
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Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with Japan Minister for Foreign Affairs, Fumio Kishida, at the Ikura Guest House in Tokyo, Japan. The visit included a joint press conference. The first video below is edited down to present Secretary Tillerson’s statement as well as his answers to a few questions.
With all the challenges facing Asia: North Korea missile tests, China expansion into the S-China Sea etc., the ugly American press corps never fails to deliver the reality of their self-absorption. [04:35] The extremely predictable journalists within the State Department Correspondents Association (SDCA) ask Tillerson about State Department budget cuts; that’s what they are worried about.

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Commerce Secretary Wilbur “Wolverine” Ross put the trade world on notice today when he announced a staggering $1.19 billion penalty on Chinese company ZTE for violating U.S. sanctions and selling electronics to Iran and North Korea.
China’s ZTE has agreed to pay the United States the fine.  Remember, in China all private businesses are politically attached to the central government.

(From Wilbur Ross Office) Secretary of Commerce Wilbur L. Ross, Jr. today announced that China’s Zhongxing Telecommunications Equipment Corporation and ZTE Kangxun Telecommunications Ltd., known collectively as ZTE, has agreed to a record-high combined civil and criminal penalty of $1.19 billion, pending approval from the courts, after illegally shipping telecommunications equipment to Iran and North Korea in violation of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations (ITSR).
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Ready yourselves – here we go again.  Up is down and down is up.
These “small government CONservatives” do have a rather obvious propensity to consolidate self-serving power when threatened, eh?  Crony CONstitutional CONservatives loves them some globalism when Wall Street is paying for their indulgences…

WASHINGTON DC – A staffer for Republican Senator Mike Lee told trade experts at a lunch in Washington this week that he is looking into ways to curtail the president’s wide-ranging powers to impose tariffs, according to one of Lee’s aides.
The aide said a bill could be introduced as early as next week, and it may require Trump to go through Congress to use tariffs.

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When President-elect Donald Trump says “America First” too few actually understand the severity of his determination to accomplish that goal. Leverage, or more accurately creating leverage, is a business art that Donald Trump has uniquely honed for decades. There are trillions of dollars in play.
Against the backdrop of a known position by President-elect Trump toward the business and financial monopolization by Amazon and Jeff Bezos, President Trump publicly brings Alibaba CEO Jack Ma to the cameras in Trump Tower. All except the business media will probably skip over the larger play within this epic display of 3-D leverage creation.

Titan Trump is almost too good at this; spooky good.  If he were an adversary, we’d be in big trouble. Thankfully he’s on America’s team.
China (writ large) and Amazon (domestically) both benefit from the historic constructs of Wall Street’s leveraged globalist approach. In essence, what we are seeing today are two natural sets of anti-American (monopolistic) business and financial interests being positioned against each other to create the leverage needed for an ultimate American win.
Trump is fracturing business globalism.  Remember, all large business leaders in modern China are essentially political emissaries.  China has been building an economic army for decades.
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Yesterday North Korea made the claim they were close to development of an inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM).   As you look at the tweet reply from Donald Trump about this claim, it’s worth remembering two very important details:

1. This issue came up in one of the February 2016 GOP debates.
2. The sequencing of the two tweets below.

This declaratory tweet message was immediately followed up with the following:
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China understands very well the consequences.  President Trump very well understands the leverage.  The U.S. market is the customer in the trade equation.
This is not a negotiation for the faint at heart… This.Shall.Be.Epic.  THIS is the battle many of us have long awaited. Long awaited.  The patriotic industrialists, our titans, have been patiently waiting for the leveling….
The overarching policy is a simple two word summary, “America First”.  It is critical, absolutely critical, to remember: in the entirety of their economic rise to power, China has never had to contemplate an economic adversary ambivalent to their state-centric objectives.
In all prior economic negotiations China has simply bought off their Washington DC opposition through the use of lobbyists and Tom Donohue’s personal business enterprise, the U.S. CoC.  China’s only familiar option is now completely off the table.
(Via Reuters) Chinese state media on Friday expressed alarm and warned of a “showdown with the U.S.” after President-elect Donald Trump named Peter Navarro, an economist who has urged a hard line against China, to head a new White House National Trade Council. (more…)