1. The following are excerpts from a news report by Shawn Donnan of Bloomberg News, posted on 10 December 2018 under the headline "Trump Trade Rep Tries to Insulate China Talks From Huawei Case". (Begin excerpts) (Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump’s trade czar insisted that the U.S.’s pursuit of a Huawei executive for allegedly violating Iran sanctions was separate from trade talks with China, but warned that further criminal actions against Chinese companies were likely in the future. Speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. trade representative, also played down the possibility of extending a tariff truce between the world’s two largest economies beyond the current 90 days.... “It’s my view that it should not really have much of an impact. I can understand from the Chinese perspective how they would see it that way. This is a criminal justice matter. It is totally separate from anything that I work on,’’ he said. He also, however, warned that further cases against Chinese companies were likely as part of a broader crackdown on China’s theft of technology and other issues such as sanctions violations. “It is certainly true that there will be continuing criminal justice matters that will go on, that will come up,’’ Lighthizer said. Lighthizer, who’s seen as a China hawk in the Trump administration, set a high bar for a deal with Chinese officials, saying the U.S. was looking for meaningful and verifiable “structural changes’’ related to Chinese policies aimed at stealing U.S. technology.... He also said he couldn’t reassure financial markets, which have been nervous about the possibility of a truce crumbling, that a deal would be forthcoming by a March 1 deadline.... (End excerpts) 2. That fellow must be talking with his head in the cloud and his mouth at his very bottom when he insisted: "It’s my view that it should not really have much of an impact." How can his view be similar to others, including 1.4 billion Chinese? Unless that fellow is a phantom that could possess the bodies and minds of one fifth of the world’s population, he could claim such nonsense. It is laughable and contradictory that while trying to calm fears over the fallout of the Huawei saga, that fellow warned that it would not be the last case against a Chinese firm. In other words, he threatened "further criminal actions against Chinese companies" in the future. One would wonder whether he would stand idly like a zombie if his grandchildren or related family members got a sound thrashing in school without prior consultation with him? Trump and company seem to be going all out to play with fire as if one fifth of mankind is non-existent or already dead. Source: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/trump-trade-rep-tries-to-insulate-china-talks-from-huawei-case-1.1180567 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ries-to-insulate-china-talks-from-huawei-case
