President Trump Has China and Iran on His "To Do" List after Succeeding with Mexico

WITH MEXICO ISSUES SETTLED FOR NOW, PRESIDENT TRUMP TURNS TO CHINA AND IRAN. In the latest news about Mexico, Reuters reported on Wednesday that Mexico Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said the deployment of National Guard forces to Mexico's southern border would start on Wednesday and will advance quickly under a migration control deal signed last week with the United States. Meanwhile, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Wednesday the sale of the former presidential jet and other aircraft from the last government would help fund efforts to curb migration under the deal with the US. • • • CHINA TRADE WAR NEWS. Money and Markets reported last week that manufacturing data suggests that China’s economy is being damaged by the trade war. Money and Markets wrote : "A report last week on Chinese manufacturing suggested that Beijing’s trade war with the Trump administration is causing economic damage. Surveys of manufacturers across the region for May showed that business confidence has been shaken by the conflict over President Donald Trump’s demands that Beijing change its industrial planning strategy and find other ways to redress its perennially huge trade surpluses. A private survey, the Caixin manufacturing purchasing managers’ index, or PMI, for China held steady at 50.2 in May, just above the 50 level that distinguishes between expansion and contraction. But business confidence slipped to its lowest level since the series began in April 2012. The official manufacturing PMI, issued Friday, sank to one of the lowest levels in three years." • Money and Markets said : "China showed no signs of budging over the Trump administration’s demands. It issued a report over the weekend saying it would not back down on 'major issues of principle.' It said Beijing had kept its word through 11 rounds of trade negotiations and accused Washington of backtracking by introducing new tariffs and other conditions beyond what had been agreed to." • However, the United States says that the last-minute rejection of the trade deal that had previously been agreed to by China was the reason that the trade negotiations broke down. • Meanwhile, according to Money and Markets : "...Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies...has found itself at the center of the US-China trade dispute....Wang Shouwen, China’s vice commerce minister and deputy international trade representative, told reporters in Beijing that China would issue details about its own list of 'unreliable entities' soon. Wang said it would be aimed at enterprises that 'violated market principles' and that cut supplies of components to Chinese businesses for non-commercial reasons. He reiterated suggestions that China might limit exports of rare earths, minerals such as lithium that are used in many products including cell phones, electric vehicles and the batteries that run them. After the US expanded its sanctions against Huawei, several leading U.S.-based global technology standards-setting groups announced restrictions on its participation in their activities." • Concerning the rare earths issue, American Thinker reported on June 1 that the US Defense Department has "requested federal funding to support the ramp-up of several American rare earth element mines after China threatened an export ban. The Sino-American trade war raged this week with a series of back-and-forth retaliations. With China generally being unable to gain advantage by pressuring the Trump administration over the risks of higher import prices and key component interruptions, Bloomberg reported that Beijing's leadership has a plan to restrict export supply of the 17 so-called rare earth elements that are crucial to the US production of military jet engines, satellites, and lasers, plus consumer products from iPhones to electric cars. The threat against the US was issued Thursday in a China People's Daily incendiary headline : 'United States, don't underestimate China's ability to strike back.' The article warned of the United States' 'uncomfortable' dependence on China rare earths. The Government Accountability Office in 2016 reported that the United States represents about 9% of world demand for rare earth elements, with the Defense Department accounting for 1% of demand. But, 15 of the 17 elements are key inputs across most of America's high-tech weapons systems." • The interesting fact, as American Thinker reported, is that : "From the 1950s through the mid-1990s, California's Mountain Pass Mine supplied most of the world's demand for rare earth elements, including europium for color TVs. But, China targeted domestic production, and export supply of rare earth elements beginning in the late 1990s as a pathway to enter the Western world's high-tech supply chain." • China used price-cutting and lax environmental and worker standards to handle the rare earths. American Thinker states : "Rare earth elements are not very rare, but they are found in deposits of the low-level radioactive element thorium. Miners know that mining and processing thorium requires substantial environmental mitigation to protect workers and adjacent communities to avoid health risks of developing pancreatic, lung, and other cancers. By selling product at 30% below market and mostly ignoring mine tailings and dumping refining wastewaters loaded with heavy metals, acids, and radioactive elements into giant unlined ponds, China was able to corner over 80% of the rare earth market. Mountain Pass continues to mine about 20% of rare earth element ore, but 100% is shipped by containers to China for refining. China's State Council disclosed in 2012 that the country's rare earths operations typically produce wastewater with a 'high concentration' of radioactive residues that have 'severely damaged surface vegetation, caused soil erosion, pollution, acidification, and reduced or even eliminated food crop output.' According to the Germany-based Institute for Applied Ecology, Bayan-Obo, China's largest rare earths project features an 11-square-kilometer waste pond -- about three times the size of New York City's Central Park -- filled with toxic sludge and thorium." • American Thinker said that Air Force spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Mike Andrews in a press conference "outlined the funding request that was sent to the White House and briefed to Congress. Colonel Andrews emphasized : 'The department continues to work closely with the President, Congress and US industry to improve US competitiveness in the mineral market.' None of the report details was disclosed, but Colonel Andrews said a federal program would employ targeted economic incentives to boost domestic rare earth production." According to American Thinker : "American Elements began discussions with the Trump administration in 2017 aimed at the US government nationalizing the Mountain Pass mine to expedite environmental approvals to ramp up production. CEO Michael Silver told Daily Manufacturing News at the time, 'The [White House] staff understood the urgency of the matter.' In a sign that new competitors will enter the domestic market, Australian rare-earths processor Lynas Corp. and Texas chemical company Blue Line Corp., announced a partnership this week to "see that US companies have continued access to rare-earth products by offering a US-based source." • It seems that once again, President Trump is on top of an issue that China was trying to use to gain an advantage in the trade talks. • • • IS CHINA SERIOUS ABOUT STARTING A WAR OVER THE SOUTH CHINA SEA?? Newsmax reported last Sunday that China's defense minister warned that its military will "resolutely take action" to defend Beijing's claims over self-ruled Taiwan and disputed South China Sea waters. Newsmax said General Wei Fenghe, speaking at an annual security conference in Singapore : "...did not direct the threat at the US but loaded his address with criticism of activities by Washington, including support for Taiwan and leading so-called freedom of navigation operations in the strategic waterways that China virtually claims as its own. Wei said the People's Liberation Army would not 'yield a single inch of the country's sacred land.' " • China's ruling Communist Party maintains that Taiwan is part of China, and Newsmax says it : "...has used increasingly aggressive rhetoric toward the democratic island, which split from the mainland amid a civil war 70 years ago. It opposes Taiwan's independence and formally says it seeks a 'peaceful reunification' while refusing to rule out the use of force if necessary to achieve that goal. 'The PLA has no intention to cause anybody trouble but it is not afraid to face up to troubles. Should anybody risk crossing the bottom line, the PLA will resolutely take action and defeat all enemies,' Wei said." • Relations between Beijing and Taipei have deteriorated, according to Newsmax : "...since Taiwan elected a pro-independence president, Tsai Ing-wen, in 2016. China has since increased diplomatic pressure, cut off its contacts with the island's government and discouraged travel there by Chinese tourists. 'China must be and will be reunified. We find no excuse not to do so. If anyone dares to split Taiwan from China, the Chinese military has no choice but to fight at all costs, at all costs, for national unity,' Wei stressed. 'We will strive for the prospect of peaceful unification with utmost sincerity and greatest efforts, but we make no promise to renounce the use of force.' Wei was addressing defense chiefs, officials and academics at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore." • US Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, who spoke to the same gathering on Saturday, was not present at Wei's speech, reports Newsmax, but : "Shanahan called China's efforts to steal technology from other nations and militarize man-made outposts in the South China Sea a 'toolkit of coercion' and urged it to stop activities the US perceives as hostile. China is pitted against smaller Southeast Asian neighbors in multiple disputes over island reefs, corals and lagoons in the South China Sea, where it constructed seven outposts equipped with airstrips, radar and missile stations that Shanahan said Saturday could become 'tollbooths' in one of the world's busiest waterways." • Beijing is currently firming up a pact with four rival claimants, containing norms and rules aimed at preventing a shooting war in the disputed waters, states Newsmax, and : "On Thursday, China's Defense Ministry dismissed a report that Australian navy pilots were hit by lasers earlier in May while exercising in the waters claimed by China. And on Sunday, Beijing closed off an area near Paracel Islands, which is also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan, for military training exercises. Wei said China built "limited defense facilities" but much of it was aimed at improving services and infrastructure for people living there. 'It is only when there are threats would there be defenses. In face of heavily armed warships and military aircraft, how can we not deploy any defense facilities?' he said." • Most of the islands are uninhabited and have been used by fishermen from all sides to shelter during storms, reportes Newsmax, and : "Wei and Shanahan met on the sidelines of the conference Friday and agreed to improve communication and deepen exchanges and cooperation between their militaries. On Sunday, Wei said the countries recognize that a conflict or war between them would have wide-reaching effects. 'It takes two to cooperate but only one to start a fight,' he said. 'We hope that the US side will work with us towards the same goal, follow the principles of non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation, and steer the China-US relations in the right direction.' China last sent a high-ranking general to the conference in 2011. Its officials have been quick to downplay this as a mere coincidence, given the busy schedules of their higher-ups. But some observers see Wei's presence this time as a pointed attempt by China to cement its relationships in the region amid a trade war with the US and having its businesses targeted with sanctions." • China would be very foolish to start a war over these built-up islands that the international community says are not in an area of the South China Sea that is part of Chinese territory. • • • PRESIDENT TRUMP DEFENDS HIS CHINA TRADE AND TARIFF STRATEGY. ChannelNewsAsia (CNA) is an English language news channel based in Singapore. Using Reuters as its source, CNA wrote on Tuesday that : "US President Donald Trump on Tuesday defended the use of tariffs as part of his trade strategy while China vowed a tough response if the United States insists on escalating trade tensions amid ongoing negotiations. The United States kicked off a tariff battle with China in 2018, seeking sweeping structural changes from Beijing. But tensions between Washington and Beijing rose sharply in May after the Trump administration accused China of reneging on promises to make structural economic changes during months of trade talks. 'Tariffs are a great negotiating tool,' Trump tweeted, one day after saying he was ready to impose another round of punitive tariffs on China. On Monday, the Republican President said he would raise tariffs on Chinese imports further if he cannot make progress in trade talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit later this month. Trump has repeatedly said he is getting ready to meet Xi at the summit in Osaka, Japan, at the end of June, but China has not confirmed it. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang again would not be drawn into confirming a Xi-Trump meeting at G20, saying information would be released once it was available to the foreign ministry. 'China does not want to fight a trade war, but we are not afraid of fighting a trade war,' he said, adding China's door was open to talks based on equality. 'If the United States only wants to escalate trade frictions, we will resolutely respond and fight to the end.' Last week, Trump said he would decide after G20, the meeting of the leaders of the world's largest economies, whether to carry out a threat to impose tariffs on an additional US$300 billion in Chinese goods. Trump is buoyed by his self-declared victory following a days-long battle with Mexico after he threatened to impose tariffs unless Mexican authorities did more to stem the migrant flow across the US-Mexico border." • CNA says : "Washington is pressing Beijing to address concerns over forced technology transfers and theft of US trade secrets. It also wants curbs on subsidies for Chinese state-owned enterprises and better access for US firms to Chinese markets. On May 10, Trump raised tariffs on US$200 billion of Chinese goods to 25% and took steps to levy duties on the additional US $300 billion in Chinese imports. Beijing retaliated with tariff hikes on a revised list of US$60 billion in US goods. US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Tuesday downplayed the likelihood of resolving the dispute at the G20 summit, saying it would not be 'a place where anyone makes a definitive deal. At the G20, at most it will be...some sort of agreement on a path forward, but certainly it's not going to be a definite agreement,' Ross told CNBC. The White House's top economic adviser Larry Kudlow echoed that sentiment in an interview with CNBC, saying he was hopeful the two presidents would meet at the G20 summit and be able to salvage the discussions. The two sides were 'about 90% home' on a 'great deal' when the talks fell apart a month ago, Kudlow said. 'We'd like to go back to where we were a month ago, where we have a very good basis.' US ambassador to China Terry Branstad was scheduled to meet with US Vice President Mike Pence in Washington on Tuesday amid the ongoing negotiations, reported Newsmax." • The US government has also angered China by putting Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, the world's biggest telecoms equipment maker, on a blacklist that effectively bans US companies from doing business with the Chinese firm. Newsmax says : "Investors worry China will retaliate by putting US companies on a blacklist or banning exports to the United States of rare earth metals, which are used in products such as memory chips, rechargeable batteries and cellphones." • If past performance tells us anything about the future, we can be assured that President Trump has a strategy for dealing with China and is working through the strategy in order to being about a trade deal that will be fair to both China and the US. • • • PRESIDENT TRUMP ALSO HAS IRAN TO CONSIDER. BBC News, and most other outlets, reported last Friday that : "The United Arab Emirates has told the UN Security Council a 'state actor' was most likely behind attacks on four tankers off its coast. The 12 May attacks bore the hallmarks of a 'sophisticated and co-ordinated operation,' according to its report. The UAE did not say who it thought was behind the attacks, which also targeted vessels from Saudi Arabia and Norway. The US has accused Iran of being behind the attacks but Teheran denies this and has called for an investigation. The attacks took place within UAE territorial waters east of the emirate of Fujairah, just outside the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, in what the UAE called a 'sabotage attack.' They exacerbated long-standing tensions between Iran, and the US and its allies in the Gulf. According to the UAE-led investigation, which was presented to a closed session of the UN Security Council in New York, the attacks showed a 'high degree of sophistication....The attacks required the expert navigation of fast boats' which 'were able to intrude into UAE territorial waters,' the report's preliminary findings say. Divers were used to attack the ships using limpet mines in order to cause damage but not cause a major explosion, the presentation says. There were no casualties but Saudi Arabia has said two of its ships suffered 'significant' damage. Another tanker was Norwegian-registered, while the fourth was UAE-flagged." • The BBC, echoing what most European outlets and governments believe about Iran, says there are two aspects to the tensions under way in the Gulf : "One practical -- what the Americans insist is a real threat from Iran and its allies in the region-- and a political one -- a push by Washington and its key Gulf allies to paint Iran as an imminent threat to peace. The latest UAE-led findings on the tanker attacks last month have to be seen in this context. At the UN they -- along with Saudi Arabia and Norway -- blamed a 'state actor' but stopped short of specifically naming Iran. But then US officials have already said Iran was responsible, with reports that the US Navy tracked a flotilla of small Iranian vessels from which they believe divers operated to mine the ships. So the accusations are not new as such, though made in a more formal setting. But they underscore the pressure-cooker atmosphere in the region with any mistake or misunderstanding by either side risking a serious military engagement....While it is unclear why Iran would carry out a relatively low-level attack on the multinational tankers, observers have speculated that it could have been to send a signal to forces ranged against it that it is capable of disrupting shipping there without triggering a war." • Responding to the UAE report, the Saudi Ambassador to the UN, Abdallah Y al-Mouallimi, said the kingdom believed "that the responsibility for this action lies on the shoulders of Iran. We have no hesitation in making this statement," Reuters news agency reported. The BBC added that : "US National Security Advisor John Bolton previously said 'naval mines almost certainly from Iran' were to blame for the damage, although he provided no evidence to support the allegation. However, Mr Bolton, long known for his hawkish stance on Iran, denied the Trump administration was seeking to overthrow the Iranian government. 'The policy we're pursuing is not a policy of regime change,' he told reporters last week during a visit to London. 'That's the fact and everybody should understand it that way.' Iran's foreign ministry has rejected the US accusations as 'ludicrous' and accused Mr Bolton of being a 'warmonger.' " • President Trump and his administration have, according to the BBC, "taken a hard line towards Iran, accusing it of being a destabilising force in the Middle East. For its part, Iran has accused the US of aggressive behaviour. Tensions increased last month when Washington ended exemptions from sanctions for countries still buying oil from Iran. Washington reinstated sanctions a year ago when it abandoned an international nuclear deal curbing Iran's nuclear programme. The decision was intended to bring Iran's oil exports to zero, denying the government its main source of revenue. In response, Iran announced it would suspend several commitments under the deal." • • • IRAN THREATENS THE US. Military.com wrote on Monday, in an article republished form article was from The Canadian Press, that : "Iran's foreign minister warned the US on Mondaythat it 'cannot expect to stay safe' after launching what he described as an economic war against Teheran, taking a hard-line stance amid a visit by Germany's top diplomat seeking to defuse tensions. A stern-faced Mohammad Javad Zarif offered a series of threats over the ongoing tensions gripping the Persian Gulf....President Donald Trump's decision over a year ago to withdraw America from Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Trump also reinstated tough sanctions on Iran, targeting its oil sector. 'Mr. Trump himself has announced that the US has launched an economic war against Iran,' Zarif said. 'The only solution for reducing tensions in this region is stopping that economic war.' Zarif also warned : 'Whoever starts a war with us will not be the one who finishes it.' " • Military.com stated : "For his part, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas insisted his country and other European nations want to find a way to salvage the nuclear deal, which saw Iran limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. But he acknowledged there were limits. 'We won't be able to do miracles, but we are trying as best as we can to do prevent its failure,' Maas said. However, Europe has yet to be able to offer Iran a way to get around the newly imposed US sanctions. Meanwhile, a July 7 deadline -- imposed by Iran -- looms for Europe to find a way to save the unraveling deal. Otherwise, Iran has warned it will resume enriching uranium closer to weapons-grade levels. Though Zarif made a point to shake Maas' hands before the cameras, his comments marked a sharp departure for the US-educated diplomat who helped secure the nuclear deal, alongside the relatively moderate President Hassan Rouhani. They came after Maas spoke about Israel, an archenemy of Iran's government. 'Israel's right to exist is part of Germany's founding principle and is completely non-negotiable,' Maas said. 'It is a result of our history and it's irrevocable and doesn't just change because I am currently in Teheran.' Zarif then grew visibly angry, offering a list of Mideast problems ranging from al-Qaida to the bombing of Yemeni civilians he blamed on the US and its allies, namely Saudi Arabia. 'If one seeks to talk about instability in this region, those are the other parties who should be held responsible," Zarif said. Zarif's sharp tone likely comes from Iran's growing frustration with Europe, as well as the ever-tightening American sanctions targeting the country. Iran's national currency, the rial, is currently trading at nearly 130,000 to $1. It had been 32,000 to the dollar at the time of the 2015 deal. That has wiped away people's earnings, as well as driven up prices on nearly every good in the country. European nations had pledged to create a mechanism called INSTEX, which would allow Iran to continue to trade for humanitarian goods despite American sanctions. However, that program has yet to really take off, something Iran's foreign ministry spokesman noted before Zarif and Maas spoke to reporters. 'We haven't put much hope in INSTEX,' spokesman Abbas Mousavi said, according to Iranian state television. 'If INSTEX was going to help us, it would have done so already.' " • President Trump, in withdrawing from the deal, pointed that the accord had not limited Iran's ballistic missile program, or addressed what American officials describe as Teheran's malign influence across the wider Mideast, said Military.com : "Back when the deal was struck in 2015, it was described it as a building block toward further negotiations with Iran, whose Islamic government has had a tense relationship with America since the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy in Teheran and subsequent hostage crisis. Some members of Trump's administration, particularly National Security Advisor John Bolton, previously supported the overthrow of Iran's government. Trump, however, has stressed that he wants to talk with Iran's clerical rulers....The semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that Ali Asghar Zarean, deputy head of Iran's nuclear department, said Teheran had increased the number of its centrifuges to 1,044 at the Fordo underground facility. Without elaborating on the model of centrifuges in Fordo, Zarean added it was 720 centrifuges before the 2015 nuclear deal. The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, said last month that Iran had begun installing a chain of 20 IR-6 centrifuges at its underground Natanz enrichment facility. Iranian officials say the IR-6 can enrich 10 times faster than an IR-1. In late May, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said that 'up to 33' more advanced IR-6 centrifuges have been installed and that 'technical discussions in relation to the IR-6 centrifuges are ongoing.' Under terms of the nuclear deal, Iran is allowed to test no more than 30 of the IR-6s once the deal has been in place for 8 1/2 years. The deal is murky about limits before that point, which will arrive in 2023. A centrifuge is a device that enriches uranium by rapidly spinning uranium hexafluoride gas. Under the atomic accord, Iran has been limited to operating 5,060 older models of IR-1 centrifuges." • Breitbart reported on June 5 that : "Iran could have a nuclear bomb in six to eight months, the former deputy head of the UN's nuclear watchdog Olli Heinonen has warned." Former IAEA official Heinonen warned that "Iran is 6-8 months away from a nuclear bomb" and said : "Israelis need to be worried, and the Gulf states also have reason for concern..." • • • JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER ABE TRIES TO LOWER TENSIONS BETWEEN THE US AND IRAN. On Wednesday mroning, USA TODAY reported that : "Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrived in Teheran on a mission to ease tensions between Iran and the US, becoming the first Japanese prime minister to visit since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Abe’s flight touched down at Teheran’s Mehrabad International Airport on Wednesday afternoon. His visit is seen as an effort to mediate amid rising tensions in the Persian Gulf region. Just ahead of his arrival, Saudi Arabia said Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels attacked one of the kingdom’s airports, wounding 26 people. The Houthis said they fired a cruise missile at the Abha regional airport. Though there were no fatalities, it was the largest number of civilians to be wounded in Saudi Arabia as a result of a rebel attack." PM Abe was greeted by Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at Teheran's Mehrabad airport....Iran’s president says that US pressures against his country are losing strength -- the latest defiant rhetoric from Hassan Rouhani amid tensions in the Persian Gulf region. Rouhani spoke during a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, hours ahead of the arrival of Abe. Iranian state TV quoted Rouhani as saying that 'America’s pressure on the Iranian nation...has reached its maximum. From today onward, the threats and pressures will lose their capacity and will be exhausted.' Rouhani was referring to America’s pullout from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers over a year ago, which is at the root of the current tensions. The tensions further soared over the US recently deploying an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers to the region. Abe is expected to try to save the increasingly unraveling nuclear deal and ease tensions in between Iran and the United States. In addition, Iraq’s Foreign Ministry says an Omani envoy is in Baghdad to discuss ways of de-escalating US-Iran tensions. Spokesman Ahmad Sahhaf told The Associated Press that Yusuf bin Alawi will discuss 'solutions' for regional challenges, adding that Iraq has become a pivotal country because of its 'strategic relations with both Iran and the United States.' The Sultanate of Oman often plays a role in mediating regional crises." • • • DEAR READERS, President Trump's success with Mexico can be seen as a preliminary to the much larger task he has in bringing China to a reasonable trade deal, keeping the South China Sea open to international users, and convincing Iran that talking to him and his administration about a real nuclear deal is better than relying on the ineffective efforts of Europe to deal with Iran around the US sanctions on Iran.