As tariff hike looms, China asks U.S. to meet it halfway, denies backtracking

Reuters ^ | 09-05-19 | Yawen Chen, Se Young Lee

[Monrose72]

China appealed to the United States to meet it halfway to salvage a deal that could end their trade war, with its chief negotiator in Washington for two days of talks hoping to stave off U.S. tariff hikes set to be triggered on Friday. The two sides had appeared to be converging on a deal until last weekend, when U.S. President Donald Trump announced his intention to raise tariffs with his negotiators saying that China was backtracking on earlier commitments. “The U.S. side has given many labels recently, ‘backtracking’, ‘betraying’ etc...China sets great store on trustworthiness and keeps its promises, and this has never changed,” Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng said on Thursday.

[Boogieman]

Haha, looks like Trump found their soft spot when he impugned their reputation. They have brought great shame to their family :D

[Starboard]

Even if they agree to a deal they won’t honor it. They never do.

[PGR88]

Right HERE is the difference between Trump, and every other DC Swamp Creature and President.

Chinese still believe they are dealing with a US Gov’t bureaucracy run by a Clinton, Bush, Romney, Biden or some other swamp-dweller. They will play the game of back-and-forth, advance-retreat, promise and delay, etc...

Trump has changed the game.

[Mollypitcher1]

China has been lying, cheating, and screwing us for years. Time to make them pay bigtime! They have NO HONOR so treat them like the thieves they are!!

[A Navy Vet]

"China sets great store on trustworthiness and keeps its promises, and this has never changed,” Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng said on Thursday."

What utter BS that comment is. China bought our missle system technology during the Clinton years through illega campaign donations (Riady and Chung), and have been hacking our military secrets for years, not to mention unfair trade policies.

[Starboard]

Thanks for sharing this condensed version.

[polymuser]

“China sets great store on trustworthiness and keeps its promises, and this has never changed...”

I hate people that treat me as stupid.

Dear President Trump: F China. To put it differently, F China. Or, in other words, F China.

[central_va]

12:01 AM cannot come fast enough. Tomorrow is D-Day in the ongoing economic trade war with the ChiComs!!!

[Paul R.]

China sets great store on trustworthiness and keeps its promises, and this has never changed,” Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng said on Thursday.

To paraphrase a fellow vet (fellow to John Kerry), writing on the Swift Vets forum, years ago, speaking of Sen. Kerry's claims about his "service" in Vietnam:

My God! He must have bigger (you-know-whats) than Steven Seagall, to lie like that!

I never forgot that line!

[reardensteel]

The chinese .gov are a lot smarter than the US press. They know better.

[House Atreides]

Changes to the prices of things nearly all Americans buy each day, and the impact to millions of jobs across the nation, even if it’s a temporary blip in pricing or production, or quarterly earnings revisions across industries is much more significant.
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Hmmm...did you see that in the first round of China tariffs (to 25% & 10%)? No you didn’t, China swallowed the costs. You also won’t see that in the increase of that 10% portion to 25% on Friday. The low labor cost “ticky-tack” products (all the non-durable crap we get from China in trade/exchange for many, many billions of hard currency dollars). That crap falls apart and/or is thrown away quickly but the hard dollars remain in China’s hands. Production of such ticky-tack output can be (and is being) sourced from other countries such as Vietnam.

[Shadow44]

I don’t want a deal, I want the tariffs.

[fedupjohn]

The "Art of the Deal", push them so far to one side that they then offer you " half of their side" as a settlement.
Then you say,"How about we split the difference"

Perfect

[ExTxMarine]

Mentally and materially, China is much better prepared than its U.S. counterpart.

Materially that is BS! China is operating at and bumped up their in-house systems by about 500%, are they really prepared to bump it up 1000%?? More importantly, American consumers are the #1 target of every world-wide manufacturer - including those in China! No matter what kind of cost savings, changes or production improvements they make, China NEEDS the American consumer more than Trump needs China!

The only thing they MIGHT be better prepared for is the "mentally" portion. China is going to have to either backtrack or they are going to try to safe face and start some international crap (North Korea firing off missiles all of a sudden seems AWFULLY coincidental); their economy is killing them internally and they cannot continue to support the multiple, empty, gargantuan cities they recently built.

[Eleutheria5]

Testing him.

[CDB]

"China sets great store on trustworthiness and keeps its promises, and this has never changed,” Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng said on Thursday."

Stand-up comedy, Chinese style. (When they stand up, they always cross their fingers behind their backs).

[dfwgator]

Winners make jokes.

Losers say “Deal!”

[dfwgator]

He needs to Gao Feng himself.

[Enterprise]

No China, we won’t meet you halfway, but if you insist, we’ll meet you at Midway.

[Monrose72]

haha brilliant