◎ The PRC and the U.S. have unwittingly stumbled into battle with the CCP devaluing the RMB and the U.S. declaring China a currency manipulator.
◎ Whenever the CCP admits to something, the reality is usually much worse than what is admitted.
◎ Unless Xi resolves factional politics at home, China and the U.S. will find it very hard to get a trade deal.
Read morePolitics Watch: G20 ‘Loser’ Xi Faces Increased Political Risks at Home
◎ Xi is reasserting his paramount authority in the face of political pushback.
◎ Both President Trump and Xi Jinping have signaled strongly that they want to meet each other at the G20 in Osaka.
◎ Ren Zhengfei’s alternating rhetoric reveals that Huawei is at its “wit’s end.”
◎ The CCP will find it very hard to return to negotiations in the current geopolitical climate.
◎ Several political signals in Xi’s inspection trip to Jiangxi are meant for different groups within the Party.
◎ Beijing’s response to the trade war is shaped by the complexities of the CCP factional struggle.
◎ How the CCP reacts to Trump’s tariff threat would determine the outcome of the trade talks.