HE CALLED ME. CALLED HIM NOT. HE CALLED ME. CALLED HIM NOT...

By Peter Burgess

From Quora

Xi won’t be calling Trump. Trump has lost his trade war and China holds all the cards. it’s Trump who is now begging to talk. China has officially responded to the Trump Administration’s pleas to talk by saying, “that any negotiations would require some preconditions to be met.” 

Chinese officials said, “The tariff and trade war was unilaterally initiated by the US, and if it wants to negotiate, it must demonstrate genuine sincerity — that includes being prepared to correct its wrongdoings and cancel its unilateral tariff hikes,” the spokesperson said. “China’s position remains consistent: If it’s a fight, we will see it through to the end. If it’s talk, the door is open.”

In case you haven’t noticed the United States under Trump has completely isolated itself. By failing to either respect former allies or live up to its own economic agreements the U.S. is left standing alone. The rest of the world is turning toward China. For whatever else it is, China is a reliable trading partner.
China has been preparing for this since Trump’s last stint in office. China holds all the cards. It has the experience of thousands of years of history, a population tempered by past hardship, and a leadership that never bankrupted a casino. 

China has a long memory and it pays the long game. China hasn’t forgotten the “century of humiliation” that it suffered at the hands of the Western powers, including the United States in the 19th and early 20th Centuries. You may have forgotten the Opium Wars and the military intervention of the United States during the Boxer Rebellion, or never knew about it, but China hasn’t forgotten. China won’t be backing down in this century. 

The only person who will bending a knee in this conflict is Trump.

If you want to know who’s feeling the most pain look at these images of marine traffic (at right). 

The green arrows are cargo ships in motion. The circles are ships anchored or docked. The screenshots are Shanghai and Los Angeles. The Port of Los Angeles is completely dormant. 

Shanghai is booming.