Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sits down for a wide-ranging interview with Martha MacCallum to discuss ongoing multi-layered issues between the U.S. and China.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross appears with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the security concerns around Chinese company Huawei and technology products designed to extract intelligence and data. [Details of Commerce Announcement Follow Video]
Secretary Ross explains the Commerce Department decision to add 46 new Huawei subsidiaries to the restricted entity list requiring U.S. companies to apply for temporary licenses for Huawei purchases. Due to the potential security ramifications the Commerce Dept. is giving U.S. companies 90-days (under Temporary General Licenses) to find alternate suppliers before all commercial engagement is halted.
Last Friday President Trump had dinner with Tim Cook, aka “Tim Apple.”
The dinner came on the heels of USTR Lighthizer announcing a postponement of “next step” 10 percent tariffs against Chinese manufactured products… Interestingly, the one of the product groups within the delay is personal computers…. Interestingly, Tim Apple was going to launch production assembly of the Macintosh personal computer in China.
Now, consider this:
CHINA – When ground was broken in March 2017 for a new US$9 billion factory owned by a subsidiary of Foxconn Group, the event was witnessed by then Guangdong party secretary Hu Chunhua and Terry Gou Tai-ming, the Taiwanese billionaire who created Foxconn, the world’s largest assembler of Apple’s iPhones and tablets.
Hong Kong movement spokesperson Sunny Cheung explains what the protests are about, and what the movement hopes to achieve. Mr. Cheung explains the protesters do not believe in the communist idea, and/or the larger communist ideology; hence their efforts to reach out to the U.S. for support.
More protests and rallies are scheduled for this weekend.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross appears (in studio) on CNBC to discuss the current state of the U.S. economy, the ongoing issues with communist China, the ‘next step’ trade tariffs and the situation in Hong Kong.
Early on Tuesday United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer announced the modification of “next step” tariffs on Chinese products. [See Here] “Products in this group include, for example, cell phones, laptop computers, video game consoles, certain toys, computer monitors, and certain items of footwear and clothing.”
President Trump responded to the delay/modification when questioned in New Jersey. President Trump noted a “very productive” phone call between Lighthizer and Vice-Premier Liu He of China:
[Transcript Segment] – […] Q Why did you make the decision on the tariffs, to delay the implementation of the tariffs?
THE PRESIDENT: Only to help, I think, a lot of different groups of people. And we had a very good talk yesterday with China — a very, very productive call. I think they want to do something. I think they’d like to do something dramatic. I was not sure whether or not they wanted to wait until a Democrat has a chance to get in. Hopefully that’s not going to happen because the economy would go to hell in a handbasket very fast.
The situation in Hong Kong is a geopolitical dynamic that will likely become much more volatile in the next few weeks, months and/or years. One constant in an ever-changing universe is how the UniParty in DC will attempt to drag the U.S. into the issues.
First, Hong Kong is China. Whether a generation of people look back with regret to the time when Great Britain ceded the territory to Beijing is irrelevant. China has, and will have, full control over Hong Kong; and that’s the way it is. This will not be reversed.
Any effort for the people within Hong Kong to reverse the situation and escape the clutches of oppressive communism while retaining their liberty will only lead to massive bloodshed.
Unfortunately for Hong Kong, as President Trump decouples the U.S. economy from the duplicitous communist Chinese enterprise, Beijing will grasp more control over the heavily Western-influenced economic strata in/around Hong Kong.
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The Iowa State Fair has a fun, quirky and non-scientific poll that it does each presidential primary season. While the results only reflect those fair visitors who choose to participate in placing a kernel of corn in a jar corresponding to their preferred candidate, the results are usually quite accurate when compared to the election results the following year.
After three days of visitors, the results as of 5:00pm show Joe Biden with a considerable lead (24%), followed by Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren (16%), Kamala Harris (11%), and Bernie Sanders (9%) rounding out the top five:
With gaffe prone Biden still holding a lead, it appears Pete Buttigieg is surging, and is now in a stronger Iowa position than national polls would suggest.
Additionally, albeit somewhat anticipated, it’s confirmed the former Bernie bloc has fractured and support amid the communist wing now leaning toward Elizabeth Warren. Perhaps that explains a rather stark tweet from Che’ Bernie moments ago:
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As the U.S-China trade confrontation continues, China is running out of dollars. Beijing is burning through cash to prop up its manufacturing industries; and the currency devaluation only exacerbates the problem. A weak Yuan, makes their exports cheap; but China is an economy of dependency, and relies upon dollars to pay bills.
Against this growing internal financial crisis, videos seem to confirm Chinese military moving into regions around Hong Kong as protests continue. Hong Kong nationals staged a three-day protest at Hong Kong’s international airport to draw attention to their plight.
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong police fired tear gas at demonstrators in the working class district of Sham Shui Po on Sunday, as yet another day of protest marches turned into a confrontation between police and activists.
Ten straight weekends of increasingly violent protests have plunged Hong Kong into its most serious political crisis in decades, posing a challenge to the central government in Beijing.(link)
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon appears on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo for a wide-ranging discussion on current political and geopolitical events.
Topics include the U.S-Mexico border security and immigration; the 2020 democrat candidates (announced and unannounced); the bigger geopolitical issues behind the U.S-China trade conflict; Joe and Hunter Biden’s direct financial relationship to the Chinese communist government; the USMCA trade agreement; Trump’s leverage to increase an EU free economic alliance against China; and radical action by dems.
