Manufacturing Barriers Lowered As China Targets US Sorghum For Dumping; US-China Tech War; National Security Commission Meeting; PRC's Indo-Pacific Ports; Magic Liquor Bust

The crippling US sanctions against ZTE may be the trigger for the next leg down in the deepening US-China trade and tech wars. The ability of the US government to decimate a major Chinese tech firm by cutting off access to US components is another reminder to China, as the Snowden revelations were, that China can not ensure information security until it completely de-Americanizes its information technology infrastructure and replaces it with indigenous products.

China’s technology base is not there yet but technology security has long been a strategic goal and this latest US move, coupled with the quickening deterioration of US-China relations, will no doubt spur the country to redouble its efforts to end any remaining US technology "hegemony".

The ZTE sanctions may also serve as another fillip to the growing nationalist backlash against US trade pressure, and to problems for marquee US tech firms operating in the PRC.

It increasingly feels like things between the US and China could spir…