Finally Friday Reads: The Chaos Morning Post

“Apparently, trump and a bunch of rich rodents arrived in China to discuss global grifting.” John Buss, @repeat1968

Good Day, Sky Dancers!

The USA shitshow went on the road to Beijing this week. The clown show included business leaders but few diplomats. The AP had this headline early this morning. “Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang takes food tour of Beijing.”  The President of Boeing was there to line up deals, too.  Reuters had this headline. “Trump says China to buy 200 Boeing jets, order could rise up to 750.”  As an afterthought, there were a few discussions on Taiwan and a nuclear pact between Russia, China, and the U.S. The Financial Times had a great headline to sum up the mess. “Boeing shares slide as Donald Trump’s China summit deals disappoint.”  All in a few days grift.

Meanwhile … Epstein Files … High Oil Prices due to Iran War … Record Level Federal Budget Deficits … Rotten Apple appointed to head Fed …  There’s a lot of missing news out there. Let’s look at a CBS News Report that asks the question of the day, imho. “Why are so many U.S. CEOs in China with Trump, and what do they want?” Aimee Picchi and Megan Cerullo share the lede.

Chinese President Xi Jinping told U.S. CEOs traveling with President Trump to China that it will open further to American business, a key goal for corporate leaders eager to expand their presence in the world’s second-largest economy.

Xi spoke with the delegation of chief executives, which includes Apple CEO Tim Cook, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, according to a statement on Thursday from the Chinese Foreign Ministry. The executives — whose combined net worth approaches $1 trillion — lead companies with major interests in China, despite years of trade disputes between the world’s two largest economies.

China’s pledge to welcome more foreign business comes after years of escalating trade tensions with the U.S., including the Trump administration’s move last year to raise tariffs on Chinese imports to as much as 125% after Mr. Trump said China “was taking us for a ride.”

Yet U.S. companies continue to see China’s expanding middle class and massive consumer base as critical growth markets, even as it has become harder to wring profits from financially struggling consumers in the U.S. and other developed economies.

The White House said that several American business leaders participated in a portion of a broader meeting between U.S. and Chinese officials.

“The two sides discussed ways to enhance economic cooperation between countries, including expanding market access for American businesses into China and increasing Chinese investment,” a White House official said in a readout of the meeting.

The CEOs accompanying Mr. Trump include:

• Cristiano Amon, CEO of Qualcomm
• Tim Cook, CEO of Apple
• Lawrence Culp Jr., CEO of GE Aerospace
• Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock
• Jane Fraser, CEO of Citigroup
• Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia
• Ryan McInerney, CEO of Visa
• Sanjay Mehrotra, CEO of Micron Technology
• Michael Miebach, CEO of Mastercard
• Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX
• Kelly Ortberg, CEO of Boeing
• Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of Blackstone
• Brian Sikes, CEO of Cargill
• David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs
• Jacob Thaysen, CEO of Illumina

“It’s so nice to see the president back on the world stage with his father.” John Buss, @repeat1968

#FARTUS also begged the Chinese President to buy more soybeans from America’s financially strapped farmers hurt by Trump’s Trade War.  However, Bloomberg/Yahoo Financehad this headline. “Soy, Cotton Fall as US Comments Fail to Lift China Trade Hopes.” The lede is shared by Hallie Gu and Ben Westcott.

Soybean futures fell, reversing course after comments from US officials during their China trip offered little beyond existing pledges and few new details on potential agricultural purchases. Corn and cotton futures also slumped.

…

Soybean and corn futures in Chicago flipped to losses. Farmers and traders have been searching for more concrete details from the talks, including on volumes and timing of crop purchases, with prices falling the previous day.

Cotton futures in New York dropped as much as 2.7%. US cotton shipments to China have lagged rival exporters like Brazil and Australia, leaving traders closely watching the Trump-Xi meeting for signs of a boost.

Thursday’s sharp drop in soybean prices — futures closed nearly 3% lower — reflected disappointment that there were not more announcements or specifics on China’s crop imports from the US at the Trump-Xi meeting, said Tobin Gorey, a strategist at Cornucopia Agri Analytics. The minor rebound earlier on Friday suggests the markets are moving on quickly, he added.

“Once the talks conclude, the market can move on from this event risk,” he said.

I do think it’s very funny that the one little person on the trip who got all the buzz was Elon Musk’s son.  “Eye on the tiger: how Elon Musk’s son’s bag became a hit with Chinese public. Product quickly sold out online after the child was pictured carrying a product inspired by traditional Chinese culture in Beijing.”  This was the headline in the South China Morning Post.

Product quickly sold out online after the child was pictured carrying a product inspired by traditional Chinese culture in Beijing

A Chinese-made tiger’s head bag carried by Elon Musk‘s young son in Beijing has prompted a wave of interest online.

Musk’s six-year-old son X Æ A-Xii, dressed in a Chinese style silk jacket, was pictured carrying the brown shoulder bag with a tiger’s face when he visited the Great Hall of the People with his father in Beijing. The photo quickly went viral on Chinese social media.

The Tesla boss was part of a delegation accompanying US President Donald Trump on his visit to Beijing, which ended on Friday.

Musk’s son was also said to be studying Chinese which impressed every one in the People’s Republic of China. This was reported by Mashable India. This definitely is not your President Nixon’s trip to China. “Musk’s Son Goes Viral During China Visit With Billionaire Dad: Elon Says X Æ A-Xii Is Learning Mandarin. X Æ A-Xii shenanigan continues in Beijing.”

World’s richest billionaire, Elon Musk, arrived at a high-level diplomatic reception in Beijing flanked by his six-year-old son X Æ A-Xii. The Tesla chief executive joined a delegation of top American business leaders, including Tim Cook and Jensen Huang for talks with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, held alongside President Donald Trump’s visit to China.

Meanwhile, the young lad drew significant attention in a room full of suits, appearing in photos wearing dark pants, a white shirt, and a blue Chinese-style silk vest as he held his father’s hand inside the Great Hall of the People. A 360-degree tourist-style photo of the pair quickly circulated on Chinese social media, generating widespread engagement during what was otherwise a tense round of negotiations.

Reacting to one of the comments over their pictures on X/Twitter, Musk remarked in Mandarin that his son is learning the language of the land.

It was not the first time the child had appeared at high-profile events. He was previously spotted in the Oval Office and was seen on his father’s shoulders at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago election night gathering.

The Beijing summit carries significant stakes for Tesla. The company is seeking approval to launch its Full Self-Driving technology in China, the world’s largest auto market, while also pursuing regulatory clearance to transfer autonomous driving data overseas. Tesla faces intensifying competition from domestic manufacturers, including BYD.

I have only one thing to say about all this.  Well, not exactly me saying it, but anyway.

“Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves. Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are. They are different. ”

― F. Scott Fitzgeral

The Philadelphia Inquirer has a less sanguine take than Trump. “Trump weighs Taiwan arms package after summit aimed at steadying US-China ties. Trump and Xi Jinping wrapped up critical talks on Friday, claiming important progress in stabilizing U.S.-China relations even as deep differences persist between the world’s two biggest powers.”

U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that he has not made a decision on whether to move forward with a major arms package for Taiwan after hearing concerns about it from Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Trump’s comments on Taiwan — a self-ruled island that China claims as its own territory — came as he flew back to Washington after wrapping up critical talks in which both leaders said important progress was made in stabilizing U.S.-China relations even as deep differences persist between the world’s two biggest powers on Iran and Taiwan.

“I will make a determination,” Trump said. He added: “I’ll be making decisions. But, you know, I think the last thing we need right now is a war that’s 9,500 miles away.”

Trump’s Republican administration in December authorized a record-setting $11 billion weapons package for Taipei, but it has yet to move forward. Lawmakers also approved a $14 billion arms sale to Taiwan in January, but the sale cannot advance until Trump formally sends it to Congress. China opposes such sales and has suggested that Washington’s relationship with the self-governing island is the key factor in U.S.-China relations.

Trump said Xi also reiterated China’s strong opposition to Taiwan’s independence. “I heard him out,” Trump said. “I didn’t make a comment.”

Trump’s consultation with Xi about arms sales to Taiwan may violate the so-called Six Assurances, a set of nonbinding U.S. policy principles formulated in 1982 under President Ronald Reagan that have helped guide the U.S. relationship with Taipei, according to analysts.

The second of the Six Assurances states that the U.S. “did not agree to consult with the People’s Republic of China on arms sales to Taiwan.”

Trump said the issue of the 1982 assurances came up in the talks with Xi.

Trump also said he raised a potential three-way nuclear deal that would involve the U.S., Russia and China. He wants each of the three countries to sign a pact that would cap the number of nuclear warheads in their arsenals. China has previously been cool to entering such a pact.

Beijing’s arsenal, according to Pentagon estimates, exceeds 600 warheads and is far from parity with the U.S. and Russia, which are each estimated to have more than 5,000 warheads. But Trump suggested Xi was receptive to the idea.

…

But the optimistic outlook collides with some difficult truths about the thorniest issues between the two superpowers.

Beijing has shown little public interest in U.S. entreaties to get more involved in solving the conflict in Iran, even though Trump said in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity that Xi had in their conversations offered to help.

In recent weeks, the U.S. State Department has accused Chinese firms of providing satellite imagery to the Iranian government, and the Treasury Department has moved to target Chinese oil refineries accused of buying oil from Tehran, as well as shippers of the oil.

Xi on Thursday warned Trump during private talks that their differences on Taiwan, if handled poorly, could hurtle the world’s dominant powers toward “clashes and even conflicts,” according to Chinese government officials.

But Trump, as he made his way home, said he was not concerned that the U.S.-China relationship was in danger. “I think we will be fine,” he said.

I’ll end with something to remind us that there are real consequences to the Trump Shit Show. This is from The Guardian.  I’ve been reading this newspaper in its earlier form, The Manchester Guardian, since high school. It never disappoints me. Here’s the headline: “13 men killed by US military boat strikes identified: ‘These were flesh-and-blood people’. All victims of US strikes in eastern Pacific and the Caribbean identified so far came from extremely poor communities.”

A five-month investigation has named 13 previously unidentified victims of US attacks on boats allegedly carrying narcotics in a campaign that has killed nearly 200 people in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific.

It is unclear if the US has ever identified any of its 194 victims before attacking them, and the names of just three had previously emerged, after their families launched legal cases against the White House.

The Trump administration has consistently sought to justify the killings, which began during last year’s military buildup towards Venezuela, by arguing those targeted were “narco-terrorists” transporting drugs to the US.

But a joint effort by 20 journalists led by the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP) this week published the identities of 13 of those killed, some of whom showed no indication of involvement in drug trafficking.

The CLIP’s report showed that all the victims identified so far, including those who may have had some involvement in drug trafficking, came from extremely poor communities across Latin America and the Caribbean.

“Despite the US claim that the strikes are fighting narco-terrorism, what is actually happening is that young people living in extremely precarious conditions, doing whatever work they can to support their families, are being targeted,” said María Teresa Ronderos, director and co-founder of the CLIP.

I can’t imagine a god blessing America under these circumstances unless it’s Hades or the Devil.

What’s on your Reading, Action, and Blogging list today?