Buried in a Wall Street Journal article outlining their shock and horror over President Trump following through with a Phase-I trade penalty of $50 billion, you find the following quote from Captain Obvious at Cornell University:

“The Trump administration is clearly signaling, ahead of Wilbur Ross’s trip to Beijing, that the gloves are off given China’s unwillingness to agree to a trade deficit reduction target or to make broader trade concessions,” said Eswar Prasad, a Cornell University professor of international trade. In addition, the “hardline stance may partly reflect the perception that China played a part in nearly derailing the Trump-Kim summit.” (link)

Gee, ya think?

The White House announced today it will clarify by June 15 a final list of $50 billion in imports from China that would be subject to tariffs of 25%, with the duties implemented “shortly thereafter.”  Additionally, future investment restrictions aimed at preventing Chinese acquisition of American technology will be announced by June 30.

(more…)

According to Yonhap News North Korea’s vice chairman of the Central Committee, Kim Yong-chol, is traveling to Beijing China for an operational briefing -and likely instructions- prior to heading to the U.S. where he might possibly be scheduled for a meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

The travel plans highlight the influence strategy deployed by China and Chairman Xi Jinping ahead of the tenuously scheduled June 12 summit between the U.S. and North Korea in Singapore.  The U.S. negotiation team is currently in South Korea working on summit details amid discussions between all significant stakeholders.

Watch the U.S. -vs- China trade front closely.  U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is scheduled to arrive in Beijing on June 2nd to discuss current trade issues.  China is hoping to manipulate their North Korean proxies as trade leverage. Communist Chinese trade negotiators are notorious for their cunning manipulation.

BEIJING, May 29 (Yonhap) — A senior North Korean official arrived in Beijing on Tuesday apparently en route to the United States to hold preparatory talks over a possible summit between the leaders of the two countries.

The trip by Kim Yong-chol, a vice chairman of the Central Committee of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, came as Washington and Pyongyang are holding working-level talks on the summit agenda and issues related to security and protocol.

(more…)

Two-and-a-half years ago Donald Trump, then a candidate, revealed his super secret strategy for dealing with North Korean nuclear weapons.  When asked “what would you do?”:

•Senator Ted Cruz: Blame Clinton, then load up South Korea and Japan with proactive nuclear weapons.
•Senator Marco Rubio: Blame Obama, then prepare for war via South Korea and Japan.
•Governor John Kasich: Tell Japan to strike the DPRK.
•Governor Jeb Bush: Launch a pre-emptive strike against Kim Jong-un, now.
•Businessman Donald Trump: Punch China in the nose.

Watch:

.

Guess which approach worked?

(more…)

Interesting dynamics at play.   President Trump has announced via Twitter the U.S. advance team has arrived in North Korea to position for a possible June 12th summit between President Trump and North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un.

(link)

Yesterday South Korean Prime Minister Moon Jae-in and North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un held an impromptu summit/meeting in the DPRK to display their unified smiles.

The influence agent, Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping, has been unusually quiet since President Trump asserted that Chairman Xi was the agent provocateur behind Kim Jong-un’s diplomatic bi-polarism.  Apparently, Chairman Xi did not anticipate President Trump being so public with the sunlight; and there’s no way Xi anticipated the economic consequences POTUS Trump outlined in the 232 Auto-Sector review.

(more…)

After the sandwich-maker summit the two Korean boys held hands and began skipping in circles around the park while the band played Ode To Joy. So goes the end of the latest chapter in the ongoing komance between Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in.

If you don’t believe it, just look at this quote directly from Reuters:

…”Kim said he feels closer to Moon after talking again.”

SEOUL (Reuters) – After a surprise meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Saturday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said he hopes that U.S. President Donald Trump keeps his planned meeting with Kim in June, Seoul-based news agency Yonhap reported Sunday. (link)

Additionally, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un expressed “his fixed will” on a possible June 12 summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in a meeting on Saturday with the president of South Korea, North Korea’s state news agency said. During what it called in-depth discussions, Kim and South Korea’s Moon Jae-in agreed to hold high-level talks between their two nations on June 1, news agency KCNA said.  (more)

(more…)

Credit to Fox Business for finally admitting the role Xi Jinping played in leveraging North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to become more adversarial to the U.S.- North Korean denuclearization talks and summit in Singapore.  Perhaps this is the first reality shift for Western media to discuss, with greater accuracy and honesty, the extent of influence held by China over the activity of North Korea.  The DPRK is a proxy province of China.

The first U.S. trade delegation visit to China happened May 2-5.  Then there was an unexpected second trip by Chairman Kim to Beijing (May 8-9). Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping instructing Chairman Kim to change his approach publicly in order to provide China with leverage in the next U.S./China trade summit which took place shortly thereafter on May 15-18.  China is leveraging North Korea for a better trade outcome.

As noted by President Donald Trump during his Oval Office remarks with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, the specifically scheming and cunning influence by Chairman Xi, what we customarily call ‘Red-Dragon-China‘, was -and is- accepted by President Trump as evidence of Beijing’s manipulative intent.

(more…)

Current Steel and Aluminum tariff exemptions expire June 1st.  Secretary Ross scheduled to be in Beijing, China June 2nd, 3rd, 4th.  The G7 Summit in Charlevoix, Quebec is on June 8th and 9th.  The tenuous Singapore summit was previously scheduled for June 12th.

Tweet Link

The MSM is insufferable in their intentional disconnect of the dynamic behind the North Korean denuclearization talks.  It was Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping who brought the DPRK to the table; and it was Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping who pushed North Korea away from the table in their manipulative efforts to extract trade concessions. Every other review of the geopolitical gamesmanship is chaff and countermeasures.

U.S. President Trump is holding massive steel and aluminum tariffs as an economic sword of Damocles over the head of Beijing during ongoing trade negotiations.  Chairman Xi sought to increase his own leverage by pulling North Korea’s Chairman Kim Jong-un away from bilateral peace and denuclearization talks.  However, POTUS Trump responded to the Beijing power-play by announcing a Section 232 trade review over the entire auto-industry; and then bolstered his counter-move by cancelling talks with Kim Jong-un.

Red Dragon didn’t expect President Trump to respond so effectively to the customary schemes notoriously famous in any Chinese negotiation encounter. I really believe Chairman Xi underestimates how adept POTUS Trump is at cutting through the obfuscation and obtuse moves.

President Trump simply doesn’t operate in the land of traditional diplomatic discomfort… he doesn’t have any inclination to play these insufferable games.

Within minutes of President Trump withdrawing from the June 12th summit, Beijing realized all of their trade leverage was just wiped out.  Playing deceptive panda isn’t going to work this time.

(Via AP) – North Korea says it is still willing to sit down for talks with the United States “at any time, at any format” after President Donald Trump abruptly canceled his planned summit with Kim Jong Un.

Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan issued a statement Friday saying North Korea is “willing to give the U.S. time and opportunities” to reconsider talks.

(more…)

President Trump has made the decision to withdraw from the scheduled June 12th summit with North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un.  [Copy of letter below]

.

Ultimately the decision to withdraw is an outcome of changes in posture initiated strategically by China and Chairman Xi Jinping.  China hoping to leverage a U.S. trade outcome by playing the strings on DPRK Chairman Kim Jong-un.

The timing of the meetings between China and DPRK, mirrors the changes in posture by the DPRK and reflects a transparency.  Communist Beijing is engaging with the Trump administration in traditional dragon-mode their zero-sum outlook.  In response, President Trump drops the Panda approach and confronts the manipulation directly.

Likely President Trump will immediately increase sanction enforcement and reposition again for a pending naval blockade.

(more…)

Prior to departing for New York to attend an immigration roundtable President Trump held an impromptu press conference on the South Lawn.  The primary topic was the congressional leadership meeting tomorrow with Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, FBI Director Christopher Wray and DOJ Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Edward O’Callaghan (formerly from DOJ-NSD).

During the impromptu remarks the term “spygate” was coined.

.

(more…)