China Fears Trump Wants a New Cold War - Bloomberg

China Fears Trump Wants a New Cold War
By Daniel Ten Kate
August 17, 2018, 8:01 PM GMT+10

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Donald Trump is being taken very seriously in Beijing.

China’s capital is gripped by an urgent debate about what is seen as the hidden motive for Washington’s escalating trade war: a grand strategy, devised and led by the U.S. president, to thwart China’s rise as a global power. As Bloomberg News reports, there’s growing concern the two nations may be heading into a new Cold War.

While lower-level trade talks are set to resume this month, Trump has already tamped down expectations of a breakthrough. Chinese officials “just are not able to give us an agreement that is acceptable,” he says.

President Xi Jinping’s administration has moved to contain any economic fallout. China appeared to be halting the recent slide in its currency, with the offshore yuan surging today by the most since January 2017.

And despite the Cold War talk in Beijing, there is still general confidence that Xi can outlast Trump in a test of wills.

“Mr. Trump put a knife on our neck,” says Lu Xiang, an expert in bilateral ties at the government-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.  “We will never surrender.”

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