In the bigger picture… Within the trade team, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is positioned with primary responsibility toward the EU and India. Ross clear-cuts through the politics, explains Trump’s objectives amid the trade proposals, and paves a path for U.S. Trade Rep Bob Lighthizer to engage his counterparts.
India has always been a key strategic nation within the global trade-realignment taking place by the Trump administration.  Under all of the banter, the “Indo-Pacific” strategy is structurally the decoupling of the U.S. from China. As a part of the strategy President Trump has positioned the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) as benefactors in manufacturing & trade as an outcome of the U.S. decoupling from China.

However, India has genuine concerns about the global dynamic. Specifically, India is worried about allowing the multinationals to have influence over their economy and social structure. In this regard India is not wrong; their concerns are not unfounded.
We can all see, heck we’ve lived through, massive multinational corporations quickly gaining too much influence; including -eventually- corporate influence over the politics of a nation. That inherently leads to corruption.
When Americans see it in other nations we call it “bribery and corruption”, but when it happens in Washington, DC, we call it “lobbying”; the process is exactly the same.
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Earlier today President Trump met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in (the Asian Obama) to discuss issues of mutual interests.  The relationship between Trump and Moon is one of the more interesting geopolitical dynamics.  President Moon is consistently flummoxed by the effectiveness of Trump and has learned to respect a strategy he doesn’t understand. [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. We’re pleased to be with President Moon of South Korea. We have a long-term friendship, and we are making a lot of progress. We are working on tremendous trade deals. We — as you know, we’ve completed a trade deal, and that’s working out very well for both countries. That deal is completed now, and it’s been in existence for — solidly in existence for six months. And it’s been very good.
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Earlier today President Trump was introduced to by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to an enthusiastic crowed at a historic Houston event.   The introduction is the culmination of two-years of strategic geopolitical alignment within Trump’s new “Indo-Pacfic” strategy.
The introduction by Prime Minister Modi was effusive in praise for the partnership that has been developing ever since the 2017 global economic alignment began.  WATCH:

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Long before the term “Indo-Pacific” was used by the administration, the trade reset strategy within the ASEAN nations became clear. President Trump positioned the fulcrum of the strategy around a trilateral alliance consisting of Japan, India and the United States.
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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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Chopper pressers are the best pressers. President Trump was leaving the White House at 9:48am for travel to New York and New Jersey when he conducted a full press conference that lasted more than 30 minutes.  The journalists were melting.
Topics and questions included: China and status of trade conflict, background checks, the Federal Reserve and interest rates, a new “very beautiful letter” from Kim Jong Un, the Mississippi ICE enforcement actions, Colin Kaepernick’s prospects for NFL employment and Joe Biden’s defects as a candidate.  [Video below – Transcript ADDED]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: So, we’re doing very well with China. We’re talking to China. We’re not ready to make a deal, but we’ll see what happens. But, you know, we’ve been hurt by China for 25, 30 years. Nobody has done anything about it. And we have no choice but to do what we’re doing.
It’s working out very well, as you know. We called them on manipulation and they brought their numbers back, and they brought them back rapidly. And they were able to do that because they manipulate. But that’s — so it’s called “monetary manipulation.” Not good.
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Beijing has once again used their proxy province of North Korea to launch small two short-range ballistic missiles as leverage in the U.S. and China trade confrontation.

WASHINGTON – For the fourth time in less than two weeks, North Korea has fired projectiles into the Sea of Japan, a U.S. official said.
The two projectiles, fired on Tuesday morning local time, were assessed to be similar to the short-range ballistic missiles tested by North Korea last week, the official said. (read more)

Moments later President Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin fired a counter-missile directly into the heart of Beijing’s trade currency manipulation:
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The financial media still doesn’t get it… Obviously! Transfixed and jaw-agape at seemingly at-odds aspects to a new engagement with Beijing, the MSM financial media are clueless. They are genuinely disconnected, and have no idea what is going on.
The majority of financial pundits are perplexed at what they can see on the surface. USTR Robert Ligthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are beginning discussions with Beijing. Meanwhile President Trump’s tweets seem to dismiss the potential of the deal-making. The media call this mixed-messaging; however, that’s not what this is.

Secretary Wilbur Ross was very insightful last week when he also spoke of the current U.S. perspective toward the U.S-China trade negotiation.  If you have followed the basic road-map of America-First trade policy, there’s was a very clear picture. However, as we expected, most pundits and trade analysts ignored the administration message.
Commerce Secretary Ross warned the professional investment class when he said the current objective for Mnuchin and Lighthizer was to find out if Beijing is willing to re-engage from the starting point where they left-off when talks collapsed.
That was a big tell.
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Earlier today President Trump sent a warning tweet about Apple possibly incurring tariffs on their products if they continue a plan for manufacturing in China.  Later in the day the president answered direct questions about those possible tariffs.
Additionally, Secretary Wilbur Ross was very insightful when he also spoke of the current U.S. perspective toward the U.S-China trade negotiation.  If you have followed the basic road-map of America-First, there’s a very clear picture; however, most pundits and trade analysts will likely ignore the message.

Subtle as a brick through a window…. yet it’s amazing how many people can’t see it.
Secretary Ross warned the professional investment class that the current objective for Secretary Mnuchin and USTR Lighthizer is to find out if Beijing is willing to re-engage from the starting point where they left-off when talks collapsed.  That’s a big tell.
After several phone calls and staff contacts if the U.S. team doesn’t know the answer to that question, well, there’s almost zero likelihood of any optimistic outlook.  In essence, the only value within the current engagement is financial ‘optics’ to stabilize markets.
It has been clear -validated by the G20 outcome- that President Trump is not going to accept anything less than a full and complete structural change in the U.S. trade position with China.  Lighthizer’s severe compliance and enforcement clauses, specific to each unique trade sector, are non-negotiable.
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Jumping Ju-Ju bones. Wow.  The North Korean broadcast of the meeting between President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un has now been fully translated to English.
Initially, even without the translation, we could see the optimistic message and a mutual strategy that would align the interests of Chairman Kim and President Trump.  However, the translation is even better than anticipated.  The message to the North Korean people is not just optimism and propaganda, the message directly and purposefully conveys an incredibly strong message of respect for U.S. President Trump.  WATCH:

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Traditional propaganda messaging would convey great power and respect for Dear Leader Kim Jong-Un and a message of moderate diminishment toward the U.S. President.  This type of propaganda narrative is also what the U.S. Main Street Media had stated Kim Jong-un would use.  But they’re wrong… all of them.
The actual message conveyed to the citizens of North Korea is one of united celebration and magnanimous respect for Chairman Kim and President Trump.  The broadcast specifically cites “wisdom”, “respect” and praise for the “incredible courage” of President Donald J Trump.  Exactly the opposite message predicted by the DC naysayers.
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Well, this will not come as a surprise to CTH readers, but it affirms prior suspicion of Chairman Xi Jinping’s motives and intents in the pre-G20 trip to North Korea.  There is also an aspect to this propaganda highlighting that Beijing actually had this narrative written prior to the outcome, I’ll explain below.

As predicted, China’s state media are proclaiming that Chairman Xi Jinping, playing the role of magnanimous panda, is responsible for the success and restart of the discussions between President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un of North Korea:

CHINA – […] Ten days before the Kim-Trump meeting, President Xi Jinping made a historic visit to North Korea, with one of the key aims being to show political support and help North Korea and the US to break the deadlock in their negotiations, Zheng said.
Xi also met Trump in Osaka on the sidelines of the G20 Summit on Saturday, when they also discussed the peninsula issue. Xi has encouraged both Kim and Trump to push forward negotiations and reach an agreement eventually.
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