We always avoided the term “trade war” here, because it is not one. Nobody dies because of the tariff, not like in Cold War, at least may spies or people actually died in the conflict between two superpowers then.
And in our posts in March, In March again, and in May and August, we always believed that something very positive (especially to US) will come out of this process.
After the dinner between Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi, we have seen the positive movement towards the right direction.
However interestingly, both countries media posts had a different interpretation of this meeting’s outcome.
Below is an excerpt from Bloomberg.
Here is a side-by-side comparison of the main points of the two statements:
(just interesting angles based on different propaganda objectives). I will leave to my readers to decide what to take of it.
| U.S. STATEMENT (LINK) | CHINESE STATEMENT (LINK) |
|---|---|
| Tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods won’t be raised on Jan. 1. | Wang Yi’s statement says there will be no higher tariffs. Deputy Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen said separately tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods won’t be raised on Jan. 1. |
| Those tariffs will be raised to 25 percent if a deal is not reached in the next 90 days. | 90-day deadline not mentioned. |
| Not mentioned. | Both leaders asked their teams to speed up talks, work toward scrapping all tariffs and reach a mutually beneficial, win-win agreement. |
| U.S., China will negotiate immediately on forced technology transfer, intellectual property protection, non-tariff barriers and cyber theft. | U.S., China will work together to reach a consensus on trade issues. |
| China will purchase “very substantial” farm, energy, industrial and other products. | China will import more U.S. goods. |
| China will immediately restart buying agricultural products. | Not mentioned. |
| Xi will reconsider Qualcomm-NXP deal. | Not mentioned. |
| Bilateral visits not mentioned. | Trump, Xi will visit each other’s countries at an appropriate time. |
| China will designate Fentanyl a Controlled Substance. | China will tighten supervision of Fentanyl, revise rules on the drug. |
| U.S., China and North Korea will work toward a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. | China supports another meeting of U.S. and North Korea’s leaders. |
| One-China policy not mentioned. | U.S. agrees to continue respecting One-China policy. |
| Market access not mentioned. | U.S. and China agree to boost market access. |
| Chinese students in U.S. not mentioned. | Xinhua story forwarded on Foreign Ministry WeChat account says U.S. welcomes Chinese students to live and study. |