Seems that the easy war with China is not that easy. So now the WH is resorting to other means to put pressure on China. This will backfire as the WH is trying really hard to make US less relevant. By actively using weapon that were previously seen as a huge deterrent, you make them a short term problem for China, but they will find a way around them and make them ineffective. The WH is fighting will almost all major economies (apart SA, Israel, and brexit Britain), and it's going to end pretty badly. I will be very surprised if we don't get a market crack before end of next year.

> The WH is fighting will almost all major economies (apart SA, Israel, and brexit Britain),

I suspect us mugs here in Brexit Britain are simply being buttered up so we can get properly buggered against our wishes, and it won't be on some artsy Parisian floor, it'll be on the world stage with our pants down.

Most of this Trump idiocy will backfire on the US.

Tiny example of today: https://www.cnet.com/news/huawei-is-apparently-already-makin...

How does having no US parts benefit America here exactly? Having one day a non-Android competitor that the largest Android manufacturers of the world (Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, Oneplus, Xiaomi) might use will benefit the US how? Having Chinese homegrown chips one day will benefit the US how? etc etc

I get that something might have to be done. This certainly isn't the way.

What'll really surprise you is when the central banking system is shut down.

Isn’t bitmain ramping down production already though?

I don't think the current White House is capable of dealing with a multilateral world. The actions taken up to this point -- tariffs and market restrictions -- are a relic of last century (even then, they never worked that well).

A lot of Obama's foreign policy focused on containment and strength in numbers.

Both the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) were as much about developing business as they were about Chinese containment.

TTP in particular grouped many of China's adversaries in the region into one large, free moving bloc. Combined with an IP protection mechanism, this group offered global manufacturers a strong alternative to China, reducing the rest of the world's dependence on the PRC.

Second, Obama realigned the military to contain China.

Unfortunately, 2016 happened and Trump, out of his principles and reasons unknown, scuttled these efforts.

I don't see the Trump administration making an about-face any time soon since it would go against their world-view.

> a multilateral world.

> Obama's foreign policy focused on containment and strength in numbers.

... and enforcing a WTO/Bretton-woods unilateral world by placating China and containing Russia/Iran to keep the BRICS bloc from gaining equal footing.

The Chinese Exclusion Act passed in 1882, it's not like anything is new here, it's just the return of an old wave.