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Old 08-18-2018, 08:26 AM
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Cool Pentagon worried that U.S. trade war with China could lead to actual war

Pentagon worried that U.S. trade war with China could lead to actual war
By: D. PARVAZ - AUG 17, 2018, 1:03 PM
RE: https://thinkprogress.org/pentagon-w...-1d7ab8193a2f/

A new report says that China is training its military to strike the U.S. and its allies.

Just as the United States and China are poised to enter another round of trade talks no one is particularly optimistic about, the Pentagon has expressed concern that China’s military is probably training to strike the United States and its allies, Reuters reported on Friday.

The Pentagon report states:

“Over the last three years, the PLA [China’s People’s Liberation Army] has rapidly expanded its overwater bomber operating areas, gaining experience in critical maritime regions and likely training for strikes against U.S. and allied targets. The PLA may continue to extend its operations beyond the first island chain, demonstrating the capability to strike U.S. and allied forces and military bases in the western Pacific Ocean, including Guam.”

If this sounds an awful lot like the threat the United States faced from North Korea, it’s because it is. As the Trump administration is engaged in some kind of detente with North Korea (meaning Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is talking to the North Koreans about denuclearization as Pyongyang continues to develop its weapons program), it has managed to increase tensions with China.

The report also mentions China strengthening “its military space capabilities” at a time when President Trump’s “Space Force” idea for militarizing space is meeting with skepticism and pushback.

As Reuters points out, the military-to-military relations between the United States and China have been tested, and the cracks started to show in May, when the Pentagon withdrew an invitation for China to participate in multinational naval exercises.

All of this comes on top of recent reports that China is testing a hypersonic missile that could be developed to carry a nuclear warhead that can evade all current U.S. detecting systems and travel at up to six times the speed of sound (4,563 mph).

An escalating trade war
If taken at face value (rather than at attempt to ratchet support for increased defense spending and the president’s increasingly hard line on China), then the Pentatgon report sheds light on on yet another troubling development in U.S.-China relations.

Things have been nothing short of horrendous on the trade front, when in an attempt to close the trade gap with China, President Trump slapped tariffs on Chinese goods, and China responded in kind, which has so far served to hurt American businesses.

In a very clear power move, China earlier this month said that it would continue to buy oil from Iran, a country the Trump administration is trying to ostensibly sanction into regime change.

Having pulled out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, President Trump reimposed sanctions on Iran, with oil sanctions coming into effect on November 5. The Trump administration has said it will sanction countries still buying oil from Iran — unless they can get waivers. China, being the top importer of Iranian oil, is unlikely to get one, and has already declared that it will very much continue to buy Iranian crude.

When asked about his China strategy at a dinner in early August, the president replied that he wasn’t going to “go there,” presumably because he hopes the new Iran Action Group, whose creation was announced on Thursday, will handle it.

But the man leading the team, Brian Hook, did not have much to say when asked specifically about China’s defiance of U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil. Here’s his full answer in his first interaction with the press in his new position:

“Well, our goal is to reduce every country’s import of Iranian oil to zero by November 4th, and we are prepared to work with countries that are reducing their imports on a case-by-case basis. As you know, those sanctions will come into effect on November 5th. Those will include sanctions on Iran’s energy sector, transactions by foreign financial institutions with the Central Bank of Iran, Iran’s shipping and shipbuilding sectors, among others. And the United States certainly hopes for full compliance by all nations in terms of not risking the threat of U.S. secondary sanctions if they continue with those transactions.”

In other words, China might be looking at secondary sanctions from the United States — kind of like the ones it was subjected to for helping North Korea skirt sanctions. And yet, despite all of this, China’s economy is still growing a pretty good clip.

CNBC reports that contrary to White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow’s claim that China’s economy “looks terrible, its GDP is projected to grow 6.6 percent this year — slightly lower than last year’s 6.9 percent but still considered robust. Its retail sales, which have dropped from 9 percent to 8.8 percent are also hardly ruinous, and eclipse the United State’s 6.4 percent growth.
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O Almighty Lord God, who neither slumberest nor sleepest; Protect and assist, we beseech thee, all those who at home or abroad, by land, by sea, or in the air, are serving this country, that they, being armed with thy defence, may be preserved evermore in all perils; and being filled with wisdom and girded with strength, may do their duty to thy honour and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Old 08-18-2018, 08:29 AM
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Arrow China keeps hitting back at Trump

China keeps hitting back at Trump
President Trump has failed to get China to fall in line with any of his demands.
By: D. PARVAZ - AUG 8, 2018, 11:58 AM
RE: https://thinkprogress.org/trump-chin...-ff751893d77a/

For President Donald Trump, this has been a week of repeated defiance from China.

On Friday, the Chinese government said it would not abide by Trump’s sanctions on Iran and would continue to import Iranian oil.

China this week reported testing a supersonic (or hypersonic) missile that, according to reports, could be developed to carry a nuclear warhead at up six times the speed of sound (4,563 mph). If these reports are true, then the Starry Sky-2 will be able to evade all U.S. detecting and defense systems.

And on Wednesday, China said it would respond in kind to the latest round of Trump’s tariffs on China — $16 billion, on top of earlier tariffs — by slapping taxes on American cars and crude oil.

The Trump administration on Tuesday said it would impose the new tariffs as of August 23, with the president insisting that his strategy on China is already yielding results:

He also claims that his strategy of imposing tariffs on goods from not only China, but the European Union, Mexico, and Canada is “working big time”:

But according to CNBC, China’s exports increased in July. While it’s too soon to tell what the long-run consequences of the bitter trade war between China and the United States will be, so far, China appears to be doing fine:

China’s closely watched surplus with the United States dipped only slightly to $28.09 billion last month from a record $28.97 billion in June. Washington has long criticized China’s trade surplus with the United States and has demanded Beijing cut it.

While the tariffs have yet to have the intended impact on the trade gap, what they have done is hurt U.S. businesses — many, from the lobster industry to car plants, are feeling the pinch.

The president’s attempts to take Iran’s oil exports down to zero has also hit a glitch in Beijing.

Having pulled the United States out of the multilateral 2015 nuclear deal with Iran (which lifted sanctions against in Iran in exchange for strict controls on its nuclear energy program), the president reimposed sanctions against Iran on Tuesday.

He has also threatened to sanction any country that continues to deal with Iran, even though they would simply be complying with the terms of the nuclear deal, which, despite the U.S.’s departure, is still very much in place.

On November 4, the sanction on importing Iranian oil will go through. China, which is the top importer of Iranian oil, has imported roughly $15 billion in crude oil from Iran each year.

When pushed on what his strategy is on China, President Trump reportedly demurred while at a private dinner on Tuesday night, saying he wouldn’t “go there.”

But China, which is also a signatory to the Iran nuclear deal, has already made it clear that it will not respond favorably to threats, and is more than happy to go there.

“China has consistently opposed unilateral sanctions and long-armed jurisdiction,” said a statement from the Chinese foreign ministry, according to Reuters.

“China’s commercial cooperation with Iran is open and transparent, reasonable, fair and lawful, not violating any United Nations Security Council resolutions. China’s lawful rights should be protected,” the statement continued.
__________________
Boats

O Almighty Lord God, who neither slumberest nor sleepest; Protect and assist, we beseech thee, all those who at home or abroad, by land, by sea, or in the air, are serving this country, that they, being armed with thy defence, may be preserved evermore in all perils; and being filled with wisdom and girded with strength, may do their duty to thy honour and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

"IN GOD WE TRUST"
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