Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Trump's Quid Pro Quo with Xi Jinping


If you make a deal with the president of China and if he keeps end of the bargain, you are obliged to keep yours… pretty much, no matter what he asks in return. Considering how important it is to denuclearize North Korea... Xi's requests will obviously not be small.

I have been speculating about the possibility that the Trump administration change in policy toward Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE has something to do with Xi Jinping’s highly effective—as of now—intervention with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.

Now, more people are coming around to this view, while simultaneously suggesting that the intervention in the ZTE affair was wrong. As I said, once you enter into a deal you commit to return whatever favor is asked. If Trump had not acceded the negotiation with North Korea would have probably run aground.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, James Freeman considers the ZTE situation. Then, at the close of his column, he remarks:

This column asked a senior administration official if Mr. Trump’s proposed ZTE relief will come in return for China applying extreme pressure to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. The reply: “Perhaps.”

Could it be any clearer?

3 comments:

  1. You were speculating that the deal might have something to do with Taiwan. Opening up to Chinese telecom company is not worse deal we could make

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  2. Thanks, I was beginning to think I was the only person who grasped what was going on here. Trump warned Xi that favorable trade deals were contingent on China bringing N. Korea to heel. It appears that they did. So, one hand washes the other.

    The media establishment pretends to be flummoxed by the ZTE effort only in as much as they'd like to convince Trump supporters that he broke his promise to get tough on China.

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