Tentative signs that the European economy may have hit bottom in April were largely overshadowed on Thursday by concerns around the state of US-China relations after Donald Trump implicated Xi in a series of irritated tweets.
“Spokesman speaks stupidly on behalf of China, trying desperately to deflect the pain and carnage that their country spread throughout the world”, Trump seethed. “Its disinformation and propaganda attack on the United States and Europe is a disgrace”, he went on to say. “It all comes from the top. They could have easily stopped the plague, but they didn’t!”
It’s still not clear which “spokesman” Trump is referring to. In another Wednesday tweet, the president accused an unidentified “wacko” of making misleading statements around what he called a “mass worldwide killing” perpetrated by China. The inflammatory posts came as lawmakers on Capitol Hill pressed ahead with a bill which could entail delisting some Chinese equities from US exchanges.
Although Global Times editor Hu Xijin doesn’t meet the description of the “dope” Trump was addressing (Hu isn’t an official “spokesman”), he was more than happy to engage. He did so again in response to Trump’s latest social media rant. “On the contrary, Chinese netizens wish for your reelection because you can make America eccentric and thus hateful for the world”, Hu shot back. “You help promote unity in China and you also make international news as fun as comedy”.
Ouch.
On Thursday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian appeared to dodge questions about whether he might be Trump’s “wacko”, choosing instead to focus on Mike Pompeo, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
Speaking of Hong Kong, Beijing is angling to crack down on dissent after nearly a year of pro-democracy protests which only abated when the virus made street demonstrations perilous. In a potentially serious escalation, China will attempt to write laws barring treason, sedition and secession into Hong Kong’s charter.
Specifically, HK01 said Thursday that China intends to demand a “Hong Kong version” of the mainland’s national security law be passed by the city’s Basic Law. It wouldn’t be the first time the subject has been broached, and it goes without saying that a new push would almost surely reinvigorate demonstrations.
A rough translation of HK01’s reporting describes the process China and pro-Beijing lawmakers in Hong Kong may try to use in order to circumvent procedural hurdles:
According to the news, the “Hong Kong version of the National Security Law” has nothing to do with Article 23. It is an independent new law that plugs the loopholes in Hong Kong’s national security and sets out specific penalties. After the NPC proposal is passed, it will be implemented in Hong Kong by putting it in Annex III without going through Hong Kong. The legislative process of the Legislative Council.
Article 18 of the Basic Law states that national laws are not implemented in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region except those listed in Annex III of this Law. All laws listed in Annex III of this Law shall be promulgated locally or implemented by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The article also states that the National People ’s Congress Standing Committee may, after consulting the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Basic Law Committee and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government to which it belongs, increase or decrease the laws listed in Annex III of this Law. It is limited to laws related to national defense, diplomacy, and other laws that are outside the autonomy of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in accordance with this Law.
Carrie Lam recently described the national security laws as “important constitutional requirements for the government [considering] recent violence”. She also described some actions taken by protesters as “near terrorist acts”.
The Hong Kong dollar weakened on the news.
“The market is taking this negatively for Hong Kong given the likely return of violent protest activities, higher risk for the US to remove certain preferential terms for Hong Kong, such as the special tariff status, and risk-off sentiment”, Becky Liu, head of China macro strategy at Standard Chartered Bank remarked.
US lawmakers – who passed legislation last year aimed at bolstering the Hong Kong demonstrators – will not be amused with this. The US State department will likely issue a scathing critique, prompting still more irritable exchanges between sundry “wackos” (as Trump would put it).
The Global Times’ Hu, in the course of responding to Trump’s latest recriminatory tweets, told the US president the following: “Chinese netizens call you ‘Jianguo,’ meaning ‘help to construct China.'”
The only thing that would have made the Trump administration pause ratcheting up its anti-China rhetoric is a market selloff. That has not happened. In addition, the move to turn the screws on the PRC appears to have bipartisan support in Congress. Escalation and significant political and economic fallout may become inexorable in the coming days and weeks.
As a side note, I find the level of racism in American society deeply troubling.
Me too. In just a year or two we are back in the 1930s. This will not end well. Trump opened Pandora’s box and everything evil got loose.
Yep, our wonderful Commander In Chief made it cool to be a loud-mouthed, small-minded, ignorant bigot.
It’s like having Archie Bunker as president. Unreal.
Archie had a better vocabulary.
I’m with you, Tom.
US China relations have essentially boiled down to name calling over Twitter, a pinnacle of diplomacy…
labeling Trump’s veiled racist remarks as “name calling”
Is like labeling terrorists as “protestors”
Look where “name calling” for many years in Germany brought the world to in 1930s ?
If we call a spade a spade now, and denounce and condemn such hateful divisive racist behavior, perhaps we have a good chance of nipping things early in the bud, and save ourselves
What legacy do u wish to leave for the children of tomorrow and the many generations after ?
To brush off racist remarks as “name calling” ?
Wisconsin
Michigan
Pennsylvania
Florida
North Carolina
Arizona
Given Trump can no long rely on a strong economy to win the next election, here’s the only key question: In these states above, will China-bashing turn-on or turn-off the Trump base vote on 11/3/2020? Until then, the stock market will be collateral damage that Trump/the Republicans will worry about after the election.
It seems to me he has dug a hole from which there is no escape. Like the knitters watching heads roll in the French revolution, ever more atrocities are required to keep his base even keel. These atrocities in the form of dis-basement of the USA are damaging to us all. If it looks like Biden wins stocks go up. If it looks like the Devil wins stocks go down. However his fate is tied to the stock market so either way he loses. Only question is what additional damage will he do in the interim. This slowly turning up the heat on China will have not impact on their behavior so we can be assured this either ends in a massive escalation or capitulation. We can hope the latter. An appreciation of history described by way of Ray Dalio’s recent post could however possibly cause a person to be concerned about spilling over into the military realm.
It would seem as if China has decided they want Trump re-elected as escalation of China-US tensions is a huge boost to Trump considering distrust of China is the one thing all Americans, left or right, seem unified about. Biden by contrast is compromised on this issue.