Escalating US-China tension

Pence Declares China Top US Foreign Enemy

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Vice President Mike Pence accused China on Thursday of trying to undermine President Donald Trump as the administration deploys tough new rhetoric over Chinese trade, economic and foreign policies.

At the Hudson Institute think tank, Pence said China was using its power in "more proactive and coercive ways to interfere in the domestic policies and politics of the United States."

"China wants a different American president," Pence said.

Pence's speech came a week after Trump accused China during a meeting of the U.N. Security Council of interfering in American elections to help his Democratic rivals.

Pence accuses China of interfering in US policies, politics

Vice President Mike Pence accused China on Thursday of trying to undermine President Donald Trump as the administration deploys tough new rhetoric over Chinese trade, economic and foreign policies.

At the Hudson Institute think tank, Pence said China was using its power in "more proactive and coercive ways to interfere in the domestic policies and politics of the United States."

"China wants a different American president," Pence said.

Pence's speech came a week after Trump accused China during a meeting of the U.N. Security Council of interfering in American elections to help his Democratic rivals.

"Regrettably, we found that China has been attempting to interfere in our upcoming 2018 election," Trump said. "They do not want me, or us, to win because I am the first president ever to challenge China on trade." As proof, Trump later referenced a paid advertising insert in The Des Moines Register by Chinese government-affiliated entities.

Pence charged that China is targeting "industries and states that would play an important role in the 2018 election" as it responds to Trump's protectionist trade tariffs on China. "By one estimate, more than 80 percent of U.S. counties targeted by China voted for President Trump in 2016; now China wants to turn these voters against our administration," Pence said.

U.S. intelligence agencies assess that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to boost Trump over his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton through hacking and releasing sensitive documents and social media manipulation.

Trump signed an executive order in September authorizing sanctions against those found to be involved in election interference, but U.S. officials have said repeatedly they have not seen nearly the same level of activity by Russia and others in the midterms as in 2016.

Much of Pence's remarks were meant to inform the public of what the U.S. government terms as China's covert and overt influence campaign.

Since Trump took office last year, his administration has escalated pressure on China, most recently with several rounds of tit-for-tat economic trade tariffs on hundreds of billions in goods. And Trump's first national security strategy released last year labeled China a "revisionist power" alongside Russia.

Pence quoted an assessment from the U.S. intelligence community that "China is targeting U.S., state and local governments and officials to exploit any divisions between federal and local levels on policy. It's using wedge issues, like trade tariffs, to advance Beijing's political influence."

Sounding the alarm, Pence warned other nations to be wary of doing business with China, condemning the Asian country's "debt diplomacy" that allows it to draw developing nations into its orbit.

Pence also warned American businesses to be vigilant against Chinese efforts to leverage access to their markets to modify corporate behavior to their liking.

He accused China of threatening "to deny a business license for a major U.S. corporation if it refused to speak out against our administration's policies."

Pence asserted that China's actions surpass those of Russia in trying to shape American opinion. He says an intelligence official told him that what "the Russians are doing pales in comparison to what China is doing across this country."

Pence also protested Beijing's construction of military fortresses in the South China Sea as well as Chinese efforts to intercept American ships carrying out naval exercises designed to contest China's territorial expansion. He condemned a Chinese ship passing this week within about 40 meters of the USS Decatur, calling it "reckless harassment."

"The United States Navy will continue to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows and our national interests demand. We will not be intimidated and we will not stand down," he said.

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“We are one of the major carriers for crude oil from the US to China. Before [the trade war] we had a nice business, but now it’s totally stopped.”

That came from Xie Chunlin, president of CMES, at the Global Maritime Forum’s annual summit in Hong Kong.

This means in practice that Trump’s trade war is COSTING the US an average of 334,880 barrels of oil a day that are NOT being bought by China.

---Pepe Escobar

China halts all oil imports from US amid escalating trade war

RT,

4 October, 2018

America’s second-largest oil client, China, has completely stopped buying crude from the United States as trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies continue to grow.

While oil has not been included on the list of bilateral tariffs, Chinese refiners have been staying away from buying crude from the US.

“We are one of the major carriers for crude oil from the US to China. Before [the trade war] we had a nice business, but now it’s totally stopped,” Xie Chunlin, the president of CMES, said on the sidelines of the Global Maritime Forum’s Annual Summit in Hong Kong, as quoted by Reuters.

Russian oil production jumps to post-Soviet high

“It’s unfortunately happened, the trade war between the US and China. Surely for the shipping business, it’s not good,” the CMES president said.

He added that the trade war was also forcing China to diversify its soybean supplies. Beijing is now buying most of its soybeans from South America.

China’s crude oil imports from America reached an average of 334,880 barrels per day through August, making Beijing the second-largest buyer of US oil after Canada.

In fact, China may be the largest buyer of American crude since much of the oil imported by Canada is re-exports – Canadian crude that briefly crosses into the US on pipelines before re-entering Canada. After ending a 40-year ban on oil exports in late 2015, the US has ramped up sales to two million barrels per day (bpd).

China buys most of its crude from Russia, with imports soaring from 665,000 bpd in 2014 to 1.2 million bpd last year. Beijing’s other major suppliers are Saudi Arabia and Iran.