Big Panda has a problem, and his name is President Donald Trump.
CTH went (proactively) directly into the heart of the Chinese Potemkin Village, much like my trip to Russia, to specifically see what the reality is on the ground in the region of all Beijing influence. Where the East meets the West you will find a hot mess of propaganda, kept in place by widespread geopolitical pretending.
Never was that reality clearer, than in the example of the retaliatory tariffs announced in response to President Trump’s trade tariffs.

(Via AP) – China said it would implement a 15% tariff on coal and liquefied natural gas products as well as a 10% tariff on crude oil, agricultural machinery and large-engine cars imported from the U.S. The tariffs would take effect next Monday. {link}
First, tariffs on energy products are pure propaganda. Coal, LNG and crude oil are fungible. In the case of China the energy products arrive from a global market, there is no identifiable way to tariff American energy products. This is not like Canada where the Candian energy products are entirely dependent on pipelines into the USA, and therefore unavoidably easy to tariff by Trump.
Chairman Xi gets most of the Chinese imported energy resources from Russia, specifically Coal, LNG and Crude Oil. So, this subset of tariffs against American energy products is pure propaganda, essentially moot.
You know who buys USA-made “large-engine cars” (Chevy Tahoe, GMC Yukon and Ford Raptors) in China? People well connected to the Chinese Communist Party, that’s who. If you are not a member of the elite ruling class in China, you do not buy large-engine cars. So, what exactly is the intent on this one? The target is a domestic internal political apparatus, in combination with narrative creation that Beijing believes will create the biggest splash headlines in the West. That’s it. Again, pure political propaganda.
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