A-Infos (en) Italy, UCADI, #208 - Trump goes on a trip (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Trump is the first US president invited to visit the Temple of Heaven in 
China; too bad Putin has already done so. This news alone might be 
enough to summarize the significance of the orange president's trip. 
---- We could also add that the leaders of major American tech companies 
(from Tesla to Amazon, Apple, and more) swindled their friend for a day 
trip, without even needing to bring a tablecloth for the equipment on 
the lawn.
On a slightly more serious note, a Fox News reporter had the opportunity 
to report on the stifling presence of cameras in China, because 
unfortunately he was almost instantly ticketed for parking in an illegal 
spot. Taking things a step further, we learn that Marco Rubio, 
sanctioned by the Chinese in 2021 (when he was a mere senator) for 
strongly anti-China statements, was admitted to the banquet thanks to a 
trick only the Chinese could have invented: this time, they used 
different ideograms to refer to Marco Rubio so they could accept him 
without lifting a sanction that included a ban on entering China. Talk 
about flexibility!
Many commentators are calling the visit a failure. It couldn't have been 
otherwise, because a visit at that level requires specific technical 
meetings to prepare it, but Trump seems to be allergic or incapable of 
real negotiations. The scenario of last year's meeting in Alaska with 
Putin, which led nowhere, has been repeated. Trump lives in a world 
where only public relations counts, and it's enough (for him) to 
maintain attention and distract the markets to engage in a bit of 
insider trading.
The result is the absolute unreliability of the US leadership; the 
others know it and let him speak, given that he's a very powerful and 
violent village idiot. A delegation with the world's richest men in the 
high-tech sector could have hinted at agreements on chip sales, but 
nothing substantial was agreed upon: just a few authorizations for 
Nvidia, in a sector where the Chinese are the first to want to limit 
imports to develop the local industry. Even the alleged sale of Boeing 
airplanes was reduced from the expected 500 to 200, adding that this 
number appears only in the US report, while there's nothing about it in 
the Chinese one. The sale of a few airplanes cannot be ruled out, but 
only to keep the orange bully calm. There is no trace of significant 
agreements on the purchase of American soybeans, so hoped for by 
American farmers who are about to be hit by the rising cost of 
fertilizer. There's not even a trace of agreements on rare earths: it's 
better for the US not to touch a sensitive issue that could upset the 
Chinese, who have cards to sell: last year, after Trump's mega tariffs, 
China severely limited the sale of rare earths, leading to the debacle 
in South Korea, when Trump and Bessent were forced to lower the tariffs 
(read: pants).
Yes, the Americans are certainly raising their voices, announcing 
sanctions on some Chinese banks should they dare trade Iranian or 
Russian oil, but even before Trump's outing, the Chinese enacted a law 
prohibiting those same banks from complying with American requests, 
while also guaranteeing protection in the event of specific US actions.
Within the framework of US-China relations, there's another area of 
conflict that hasn't surfaced, perhaps because the US isn't directly 
involved, but only through a proxy: Panama. For the past 30 years, a 
Hong Kong-based Chinese company (KH Hutchinson), thanks to a contract 
signed with the Panamanian state, managed the two ports that coordinate 
container traffic on the Atlantic and Pacific sides of the canal. 
Suddenly, in early 2026, the Panamanian Supreme Court ruled that the 
contract was unconstitutional (coincidentally, shortly after Trump's 
declaration on the need to reclaim the canal). Moral of the story: a 
couple of months later, the Chinese raised port fees for Panamanian 
ships docking at Chinese ports. It's worth noting that much of 
Panamanian revenue comes not only from
The canal, but rather ships lent to international freight traffic. A 
move like China's will lead many Panamanian ships to change flags. The 
story doesn't seem to end there: once the KH Hutchinson was forced to 
leave Panama, management of the two ports was entrusted to two of the 
main container shipping companies: the Danish company Maersk and the 
Swiss company MSC. The Chinese have announced retaliation, but it's 
unclear what form it would take, given that they risk harming 
themselves. We'll see.
In short, there have been no notable commercial results. Perhaps the 
picture is different on a strictly political level? It doesn't seem so: 
the Chinese have refused (very politely, as always) to pressure Iran to 
open the Strait of Hormuz and/or accept the American peace plan. That 
the Chinese prefer an Iran without the nuclear bomb is self-evident, and 
repeating the point costs them nothing, just as it costs them nothing to 
express a preference for an open Strait of Hormuz. But from here to 
committing to solving a problem caused by the Americans is a long way 
off, and indeed there's no trace of this in the Chinese report.
However, there's one thing that matters more to the Chinese than 
anything else, and they made it very clear when they stated that peace 
and Taiwan's independence are like fire and water: they don't want 
American interference, otherwise there will be clashes and conflicts , 
as the English translation suggests. In short, a threat, which is quite 
unusual.
Now it's up to Trump to decide whether to exacerbate relations by 
selling the billions in weapons promised to Taiwan.
In essence, nothing has changed. Trump must decide whether to authorize 
a very costly and risky military action against Iran or venture into 
completely unfamiliar territory: that of negotiations. Even Kagan, the 
pope of the neocons (and husband of Victoria Nuland, the architect of 
the Ukraine operation), has clearly written that the Iran operation is 
undoubtedly a failure, but his neocon soul emerges and he states that to 
win it is necessary to undertake a very large and costly operation (both 
in terms of money and human lives): in other words, let's do it because 
we have to clear the boil anyway .
Will Trump follow his instructions?

Antonio Politi

https://www.ucadi.org/2026/05/23/trump-va-in-gita/
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