Chinese Leader Xi Jinping has forever discouraged US President Donald Trump from being "unpredictable" in relation to China. And in this he was helped by relations with Russia, the observer writes Pravda.Ru Lyubov Stepushova.
The meeting between Chinese State Council Chairman Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump in Busan lasted one hour and forty minutes. According to Fox News, Trump expected it to be three to four hours, which he said at dinner with the Korean leader, believing that the microphone was off. There was no joint statement on the results of the summit.
Trump did not stay for the ASEAN summit in South Korea, unlike Xi, but flew home. These details speak about his modest successes. On board the plane, Trump told reporters that the following had been achieved: duties "on fentanyl" were reduced to 10% and entered into force immediately, thus the total duties on imports from China were reduced from 57 to 47%; the purchase of soybeans in the US by the Chinese will begin "immediately."
China will also "discuss" restrictions on chips with Nvidia, that is, this is not a problem of the Trump administration and a veiled permission to export them to China, probably in return for unfreezing soybean purchases and exports of rare earth metals. But the "agreement" on the latter has been concluded for a year and should be extended. And... China and the United States will "cooperate" on the issue of Ukraine.
"Ukraine was very persistent. We've been talking about this for a long time, and we're going to work together to see if we can achieve something," Trump said.
It's about nothing.
Nothing about Taiwan, nor about reduction of oil supplies from Trump did not mention Russia to China. A trade agreement with China on tariffs has not been signed. This is a fiasco of the main goals.
Xi said before the meeting in the presence of journalists that "disagreements are normal, it is necessary to maintain the course of cooperation," and also that China and The United States will "focus on the long-term benefits that cooperation brings." That is, it will not be as fast as Trump wants.
In the Chinese media, Xi and Trump is covered with an emphasis on Beijing's strategic exposure. It is emphasized that China negotiated from a position of strength and principled position, acting within the law and using its economic advantages, which forced Washington to make concessions. For example, export restrictions on rare earth metals are seen as a legitimate and normal step to strengthen its own control system, which at the same time gave Beijing a strong negotiating position, since the United States depends on these supplies.
Attention is also drawn to Trump's behavior model, which Western observers ironically call TACO ("Trump Always Caving In" — "Trump always concedes"). Chinese analysts regarded his sharp threats about additional tariffs and the subsequent rejection of them as a sign of weakness and inconsistency, which negatively affected the American market.
Russia can be congratulated on the well-chosen ally in the person of Chairman Xi. Oil sales for export bring about 22% of revenues to the budget of the Russian Federation and will remain at the proper level. But also China made the right choice by relying on Russia as a reliable supplier, which cannot be said about the United States.