People's Leader Xi; US-China trade; Hong Kong; Fentanyl; Scientific entanglement

And we are back, glad I was able to go to Alaska when nothing was going on…Kidding of course, though given the events of the last few days I am tempted to go hide out in the Tongass for a few years...

The US-China trade war, part of the overall intensifying US-China competition, ratcheted up further with tit for tat threats of increased tariffs. The stock markets were unhappy with the escalation and President Trump, just in time to goose stock market futures before the Monday open, said “China called last night our top trade people and said ‘Let’s get back to the table’”.

So far there is no confirmation from the Chinese side that such a call occurred, and at a press conference today Trump and US Treasury Secretary Mnuchin played up comments by Liu He Monday that “China is willing to resolve issues through consultation and cooperation with a calm attitude, while resolutely opposing the escalation of the trade war”.

But Liu's comments about the US-China trade issues sound no different fr…