In Unprecedented Speech, President Xi Warns Of “Serious Dangers” To Communist Party Rule

 

Since the days of Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese Communist Party has maintained its absolute authority over China’s roughly 1.4 billion people via an explicit social contract: the CCP would engineer an economic miracle that would lift hundreds of millions of people into the middle class, and in return, the Chinese people would accept the limitations on political freedoms demanded by the CCP.

But with China’s economy growing at its slowest pace in three decades and private sector businesses struggling with an unprecedented credit squeeze, President Xi Jinping must scramble to find a way to stabilize the country’s economy in the face of the US’s trade war escalation threats in order to ensure his legitimacy in the eyes of the public.

Chinese Ambassador Warns of ‘Dire Consequences’ Over Trade War

(Photo Credit: Tech Sgt. Vernon Young Jr./U.S. Air Force)

 

As the world’s leaders prepare for Buenos Aires G20 Summit, Cui Tiankai hints all-out war could be looming.

Although both sides are going to this week’s G20 summit in Buenos Aires hoping for a deal to end the escalating trade war between them, Chinese and U.S. officials have conceded such a deal is highly unlikely despite the looming signs of dire consequences if they fail to do so.

China To Unveil Next-Generation Stealth Bomber In 2019

 

Last week, the Global Times confirmed that the Hong-20, China’s newest long-range stealth bomber was ready for imminent trial flights.

Now, it seems Chinese media, as per Defense Blog, has indicated that the stealth bomber will be unveiled during a massive military parade in 2019.

While there is no official statement or confirmation from the Chinese government or military, the unveiling is expected to occurring during a period where JPMorgan expects a full-blown trade war between the US and China. 

‘New Cold War’ Developing Between U.S., China

(Photo Credit: Air Force Master Sgt. Jerry Morrison)

 

Beijing is digging in for a ‘war of attrition’ that won’t end anytime soon.

With trade tensions growing between Washington and Beijing, and the military tensions building in the South China Sea, observers are noting that a “new Cold War” is brewing between the U.S. and China.

Iran Sanctions, Emerging Markets And The End Of Dollar Dominance

 

 

The trade war is a rather strange and bewildering affair if you do not understand the underlying goal behind it. If you think that the goal is to balance the trade deficit and provide a more amicable deal for U.S. producers on the global market, then you are probably finding yourself either confused, or operating on blind faith that the details will work themselves out.

Case in point, the latest reports that the U.S. trade deficit is now on track to hit 10-year highs, after a 7% increase in June. This is the exact opposite of what was supposed to happen when tariffs were initiated. In fact, I recall much talk in alternative media circles claiming that the mere threat of tariffs would frighten foreign exporters into balancing trade on their own. Obviously this has not been the case.

Report: Cracks Forming in Chinese Leadership Over Trade War

(Photo Credit: The Kremlin/www.kremlin.ru)

 

One of Xi Jinping’s closest advisers is now on the hot seat in Beijing.

A new report today published by Reuters states that sources inside the Communist Party of China indicate the party’s leadership is growing increasingly divided over President Xi Jinping’s approach to the current trade war with the U.S.

The article focuses much of the internal consternation with Xi’s “ideology chief,” strategist Wang Huning, a prominent and influential academic whose “strident views on Chinese power” has attracted favor within several quarters of the CPC, but has also come under attack. He is also responsible for the “China Dream” espoused by Xi at the most recent party congress.

China Taunts The US: “We Will Survive Your Trade War”

 

As tariffs are added and prices go up on goods and services to combat increasing government regulation of the economy, China insists it can handle a trade war with the US.  Of course, they can; since American consumers are going to be ones footing the bill for this horrific idea.

The Trade War Between the US and China Just Got Personal

(Photo Credit: Michael Vadon/CPAC)

 

Beijing’s state-run media unleashed a barrage of personal attacks against President Trump today.

As the trade war between itself and the Trump administration, Beijing got personal today, calling President Donald Trump “arrogant” and “deceitful” before vowing to “fight to the end,” and claiming the U.S. will only hurt itself.

Winning: Juncker Agrees on Trump Trade Deal

(Photo Credit: The White House)

 

The goal, according to both men, will be tariff-free trade.

Following their meeting Wednesday, President Donald Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker announced they had agreed to a trade deal that will eventually result in tariff-free trade between the U.S. and the European Union.

…

Juncker said he came to Washington, D.C., with one goal in mind: to “make a deal,” and the goal was met. He called his discussions with the president a “good, constructive meeting.”

Prepare for a Chinese Maxi-devaluation

(Shutterstock)

 

The news is being dominated by breathless headlines about the new trade war between the U.S. and China. But this trade war has been brewing for years and came as no surprise to readers of my newsletter, Project Prophesy. In fact, the new trade war is simply a continuation of the currency wars that began in 2010.

I’ve warned for over a year that President Trump’s threats of tariffs should be taken seriously, while most of Wall Street discounted Trump’s talk as mere bluster. Now the trade wars are here as we expected, and they will get much worse before they are resolved.

Currency wars arise in a condition of too much debt and too little growth. Economic powers try to steal growth from their trading partners by devaluing their currencies to promote exports and import inflation.

The U.S. Dollar: A Victim of Its Own Success

 

America’s most powerful weapon of war does not shoot, fly or explode. It’s not a submarine, plane, tank or laser. America’s most powerful strategic weapon today is the dollar.

The U.S. uses the dollar strategically to reward friends and punish enemies. The use of the dollar as a weapon is not limited to trade wars and currency wars, although the dollar is used tactically in those disputes. The dollar is much more powerful than that.

The dollar can be used for regime change by creating hyperinflation, bank runs and domestic dissent in countries targeted by the U.S. The U.S. can depose the governments of its adversaries, or at least blunt their policies without firing a shot.

The Art of the Deal Vs. The Art of War

 

At the risk of beating a dead horse on the topic of trade wars, the sequence of unfolding events is making me cautious near term.

Let me explain why.

First, for all those market pundits, analysts and investors who are following the twists and turns of this trade tiff using Trump’s Art of the Deal as their playbook…

I have a better read for you. Pick up a copy of Sun Tzu’s, The Art of War instead!

The Road to War: China vs the US

 

In 2016 Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, declared that there was no doubt, in his mind, that the US would go to war with China in the South China Sea in the next five to 10 years.

A US-Chinese military conflict would be on top of a vow by Trump in his inaugural presidential address, to not only take on radical Islamic terrorism but to “eradicate it from the face of the Earth.” This would be done by building up America’s already supreme military. “Our military dominance must be unquestioned,” the billionaire businessman, who now controlled the most powerful political office in the world, declared in his first address to the nation.

A year and a half after that speech, the United States is not at war with China, but its economic saber-rattling is arguably the beginning of a confrontation between the world’s largest and second-largest economies. Trump’s tariff threats against not only China but Europe, Canada, Mexico and its other trade partners, are also symbolic of a shift in US foreign policy towards a more isolationist stance – one that may not strictly be due to Trump’s belligerent personality. This article will get into the antecedents of this economic and military showdown and point the way to some possible future scenarios, including a war in space.

Leaked Chinese Memo Warns Of “Thucydides Trap” With US, “War Is Unavoidable”

 

A series of leaked internal documents reveal that China’s military reforms are aimed at allowing Beijing to “manage a crisis, contain a conflict, win a war” and overtake the United States in military strength, according to the Express.

The leaked documents were published by the Central Military Commission in February for the purpose of spreading President Xi Jinping’s “thought on strengthening the armed forces”.

If the reforms go ahead, they will lead to heightened tensions with China’s neighbouring countries, including Japan, in the East and South China Seas and the US. –Express

China begins testing electronic warfare assets in South China Sea: report

View of Spratly Islands. Photo: US Navy handout via Reuters

 

Word of US intelligence report comes after assessment that equipment was installed on the contested Spratly islands earlier this year

As the US and China plunge into a trade war, Beijing is apparently preparing for a different type of warfare that some fear may be on the horizon.