Sunday 8 July 2018

US and China: who tried to avert a trade war and who forced it? | SCMP


/Snip:
In a nutshell, the Xi government proceeded with sincerity to fulfil its side of the May 19 bargain.

The same cannot be said of the Trump administration. Barely 10 days after the ink had dried – and with no perceptible negative shift at the Chinese end – Trump reversed course and announced the US would go ahead and impose the Section 301 tariffs on China. A final list of covered imports was announced on June 15 with tariffs set to go into effect three weeks later.
So what to make of this article by Sourabh Gupta in today's South China Morning Post?
Trump flip-flops, inconsistency and bad faith? (the Left) Or some form of "master manipulation"? (Scott Adams).