BY GORDON WATTS
Vice-President Wang calls for an end to the trade war with the United States before his withering, parting shot
(South China Morning Post) On the blustery, cold morning of January 29, 1979, the red flag of China was flying over the South Lawn of the White House when US President Jimmy Carter welcomed Deng Xiaoping, the first Chinese leader to visit the United States since the communists took control of China in 1949.
BY ASIA TIMES STAFF
People's Bank of China to utilize bonds, credits and equities and other financial tools, says governor Yi Gang
mentioning George P. Shultz, Hoover Institution via The Washington Post
China may be close to achieving something “never before tried at any time in history,” the scholar Nicholas Eberstadt said last week. That new creation: “market totalitarianism.” No country has ever achieved vibrant, entrepreneurial prosperity while denying its people political freedom. And there’s good reason for that, or so we’ve always thought.
Chinese are feeling their oats, but are not yet able to shoot back at the US Navy. Xi Jinping has no Plan B. If Xi backs down, he loses power and maybe his life. He’s increased the cost of losing – which he knows – and he can take China over the edge. If he’s going to die, he might as well slaughter half of humanity if he thinks he’s got a chance to survive.
Foreign Affairs, Caitlin Thomas*: US Navy is likely to encourage China to go max in any exchange of weapons because we can strike at their nukes and they can’t strike at ours. China will get aggressive when you show strength or when you don't – the problem is the nature of the regime. We can detain China, and hope to deter – but we can't deter with weakness. This is why Trump is in such a difficult position now. There’s nothing anyone outside can do to re-institutionalize the CCP. The Party has to do that, itself. We had to confront China over its stealing hundreds of billions of dollars. Yuan is flirting with 7 to a dollar; in the black market, it's 8 to 1. Transaction fee today: 5% China moving from authoritarianism totalitarianism.
Will China go nuclear? Yes – because it doesn't have the forces [the triad] that Russia has; an unstable regime and a man making threats against the US by a man who declares himself ruler for life.
interview with Elizabeth Economy via EastWest Institute
Hoover Institution fellow Elizabeth Economy discusses her third and latest book The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State.