Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke to a visiting delegation of American businesses in Beijing yesterday evening where he said he's willing to sign a deal with Trump based on "mutual respect and equality."
Jinping told the group of Americans that he's optimistic about their chances of signing a deal, but he also said they will "fight back" whenever they need to.
Echoing the upbeat tone adopted by other Chinese officials in recent days, Xi told a visiting U.S. business delegation that China holds a “positive attitude” about the trade talks.
“As we always said we don’t want to start the trade war, but we are not afraid,” Xi said. “When necessary, we will fight back but we have been working actively to try not to have a trade war.” [...]
“We want to work for a Phase 1 agreement on the basis of mutual respect and equality,” Xi told the group.
This all makes sense, right?
China is a sovereign nation with their own goals and ambitions and while they believe ending Trump's trade war would be beneficial to their economy, they aren't going to sacrifice their dignity for it.
Most people reading this are capable of understanding that, but Trump isn't most people.
Trump called into Fucks & Friends this morning where he responded to President Jinping by saying he doesn't like equality.
But while both sides say they want to work out an agreement, Trump told Fox he is “not anxious” to hash one out, claiming that the U.S. benefits from tariffs on Chinese imports. [...]
Chinese President Xi Jinping said Friday that Beijing wants a deal “on the basis of mutual respect and equality.”
Trump shot back on Fox that “I didn’t like his word ‘equality,’” adding “this can’t be like an even deal.”
This doesn't necessarily tell us anything we didn't already know, but there it is. This 'can't be an even deal,' Trump says, because his idea of a deal is that he gets everything and you get nothing.
I am at my most skeptical point about the Trump regime's chances of signing a deal when Trump talks like this because all the phantom "progress" in the world doesn't mean anything if Trump does not personally feel satisfied in some vague way. You know, to the extent that his primitive lizard brain is even capable of being satisfied.
If Trump stands by his word that "phase one" of his "greatest and biggest deal ever" can't be equal "even," there will be no phase one. Trump is either going to have to accept an equal deal or he's going to have to eat his words. The alternative is another escalation.