Vin Suprynowicz

I was a daily and weekly newspaper reporter for some years, in my younger days, and then an editor of daily and weekly newspapers for more than three decades, often assigning and directing reporters.

My job was to edit their work, which should involve a lot more than just fixing spelling and grammar. A good editor tries to instruct reporters on how to spot and follow up the important points in a developing story, rather than being led around by the nose by slick “public relations” types who want them to report only the happy-talk that the politicians or corporate big-wigs hope to see in the paper.

Yes, going in with a few prepared questions in advance makes sense. But insisting on sticking with your scripted list to the point where you miss the clues of something significant happening right in front of your eyes — something that ought to trigger alarm bells — can be the difference between finding the real story for your readers, or missing it entirely.

As in so many things, it’s more important to LISTEN, to engage in actual DIALOGUE, to say, “But wait, that would mean . . .” than to cut off what the other person is saying because you want to rush through your list, to show off how many clever, nasty questions you thought up.

One of the most important things President Trump has been doing during his first two years in office — right up there with fighting the scourge of the low-wage illegal-alien criminal invasion across our southern border, long and still facilitated by lying Washington politicians of both parties who insist “Of course we want to secure the border . . .” — is trying to hammer out a better trade agreement (one much less harmful to American industry, the American economy and the American worker) with Red China.

The only thing that’s brought the Chinese to seriously discuss their criminal ways of doing business is the fact that President Trump has shown himself to be serious about imposing tariffs.

China is not economically self-sufficient. Nor can the Chinese people innovate — innovation, creative thinking and questioning, is crushed out of any people from an early age by the heavy-handed, top-down culture of a Communist regime, crippling the source of domestic innovation.

(Yes, yes, they invented paper and gunpowder. Quite a while ago.)

Instead, the Chinese have built their whole modern economy around stealing American and European technology, importing raw materials, building stuff with that stolen technology, and exporting the resulting, cheaply-made goods. And America is China’s biggest export market.

Trump has already screwed up the game through which the Chinese exported stuff to Mexico of Canada, where the Canadians or Mexicans slapped on a “made in Canada” or “Hecho in Mexico” label and slipped it into the United States duty-free under the former “North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).”

As long as that loophole was in place, the Chinese could laugh at any threat of American tariffs on “imports from China.” No more. Now tariffs and the threat of tariffs worry them, big-time.

But the Chinese are clever, and far from forthright. They think lying and cheating and endless delay are merely clever. Those who’ve watched the Chinese ever since Chiang Kai-Shek promised to use all that war materiel we flew to him at great expense “over the hump” in the early 1940s to “counterattack the Japanese” (while in fact he merely stockpiled it for the later civil war he knew was coming against Mao’s Communists) have warned from the start: “The Chinese will pretend to negotiate, throw us a few meaningless accommodations on soybean imports, insist ‘good progress is being made’ and seek to extend the talks for months and years, chortling each time we agree ‘OK, we’ll delay the tariff hikes for a few more months, as long as you double-promise and shake on it that you’re negotiating in good faith . . .'”

On Friday, Feb. 22, reporters and television cameras were welcomed into the Oval Office as President Trump met with his own trade negotiating team and with some of the Chinese trade delegation including Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, who was of course all smiles, all “Good progress is being made.”

(see https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/02/22/transcript-president-trump-meets-with-u-s-china-trade-negotiation-teams-in-oval-office/#more-160343 for full transcript.)

One might expect such a gathering to be largely ceremonial, pretty short on substance. Everyone’s on their best behavior, you wouldn’t expect to hear raised voices. Mostly a bore, but a good reporter will go and listen — listen especially for anything that sounds a little different, not quite right. . . .

It’s still a heady opportunity for a reporter — the honest-to-God Oval Office, and the whole negotiating team, for heaven’s sake. And in fact there was some significant back-and-forth — not between the Americans and the Chinese, who stayed predictably on script, but between Mr. Trump and his own team, particularly United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

Spontaneous, or scripted? I’m not sure, Still, worth noting . . .

‘It would not be inappropriate to extend that deadline . . .’

The American team has been working to place the more detailed terms of the prospective agreement into lengthy “Memoranda of Understanding.” Mr. Trump made it clear he believes “Memoranda of Understanding” are worthless, unless they’re incorporated directly into the final signed contract.

His exchange with Mr. Lighthizer on this point was moderately amusing:

AMBASSADOR LIGHTHIZER: An MOU is a contract. It’s the way trade agreements are generally used. People refer to it like it’s a term sheet. It’s not a term sheet. It’s an actual contract between the two parties. A memorandum of understanding is a binding agreement between two people. And that’s what we’re talking about. It’s detailed; it covers everything in great detail. It’s just called a memorandum of understanding. That’s a legal term. It’s a contract.

Q from the press: And would you think that would be a very long-term deal, sir?

VICE PREMIER LIU: Yes. Yes. Yes. (Inaudible.) Yes.

AMBASSADOR LIGHTHIZER: Contracts last while they last. There’s no term. They last while they last.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: By the way, I disagree. I think that a memorandum of understanding is not a contract to the extent that we want. We’re going to have — we’re doing a memorandum of understanding that will be put into a final contract, I assume. But, to me, the final contract is really the thing, Bob — and I think you mean that, too — is really the thing that means something.

A memorandum of understanding is exactly that: It’s a memorandum of what our understanding is. But, to me, the contract is — the real question is, Bob, so we do a memorandum of understanding, which, frankly, you could do or not do. I don’t care if you do it or not. To me, it doesn’t mean very much. But if you do a memorandum of — how long will it take to put that into a final, binding contract?

AMBASSADOR LIGHTHIZER: From now on, we’re not using the word “memorandum of understanding” anymore. We’re going to the term “trade agreement.” All right?

VICE PREMIER LIU: Okay.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Right.

AMBASSADOR LIGHTHIZER: No more. We’ll never use the term again.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Good.

AMBASSADOR LIGHTHIZER: We’ll have the same document. It’s going to be called a “trade agreement.” We’re never going to use “MOU” again. . . . We’re never using that word again.”

(END TRANSCRIPT)

Very amusing.

But the American reporters then raced to wedge in all the questions they’d brought along with them in advance — mostly on topics they hoped would damage President Trump, of course — questions on everything from post-election “vote harvesting” in A SINGLE North Carolina congressional district (the one district where the practice may have helped a Republican candidate, mind you, not a word about the SEVEN California cases in which the post-election bundling of largely fraudulent “mail-in” ballots flipped GOP districts to Democrats) to the hoped-for public release of the “Mueller report” (which in fact will not be a public document, but from which they hope to extract some juicy anti-Trump nuggets after someone on the Mueller team illegally leaks it to them) to an accusation that the owner of an NFL football team who may be a friend of Mr. Trump — a 77-year-old guy whose wife of 48 years died back in 2011 — has been accused of doing business with a prostitute in Florida (links “Trump” and “whores,” see, “Trump” and “whores.”)

Who cares if such behavior by the shouting gaggle is likely to embolden the Chinese negotiators by making our president appear weak and embattled in their presence? Who cares if by so doing they missed one of the most important revelations that came out of the actual discussions they were there to cover.

The transcript, edited down, reveals:

PRESIDENT TRUMP: . . . We’re, right now, getting a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion worth of goods coming in — mostly technology and high technology.

We’re getting a 10 percent tariff on $200 billion worth of goods. The 10 percent goes up as of March 1st. It goes to a 25 percent number. So we’d be getting 25 percent on $250 billion. And there’s about $267 billion that’s un-tariffed, untouched, which we’ll discuss later. . . .

SECRETARY PERDUE: I think the work that’s being done on both sides is very, very important. And I’m happy to hear the progress, obviously. I think everybody understands, Mr. President, this deal will be consummated — if there is a deal — by you and President Xi. And we understand that. . . Ultimately you and President Xi are going to have to really do the deal.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: . . . Then, ultimately, we’ll have a meeting with myself and President Xi to discuss the final terms and things that haven’t been agreed to. . . .

Q from the press (and, for a change, a solid one, right on target): Mr. President, do you expect to extend the deadline because of the progress here? Or will you still stick with March 1st?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I set the deadline of March 1st, and right now it’s at 10 percent. And I think that if — I mean, you can tell this to President Xi — I think — and if I see progress being made, substantial progress being made, it would not be inappropriate to extend that deadline — keep it at 10 percent, instead of raising it to 25 percent. And I would be inclined to doing that. I haven’t even spoken to my people about it. Most people assume it’ll just kick in automatically — the 25 percent. But I’m the one that said it, and I think it was a reasonable period of time.

But we’re covering things that we didn’t even know we’d be covering. We’re going very deep into the trade, and covering items that a lot of people wanted to cover and nobody thought we’d ever get to. But we have a one-time shot at making a great deal for both countries. And so we are going to give it.

So it depends on where we are. If we’re doing well — Jeff, if we’re doing very well on the negotiation, I could see extending that. And I don’t think it would have to be a long-term extension because I would imagine that if it took, Steve, another month or so or less —

SECRETARY MNUCHIN (Who, by the way, Gordon Chang says it’s unsafe to leave alone in the room with the Chinese delegation, lest he willfully ignore their devastating technology theft in search of a “quick fix” — see . . . https://www.breitbart.com/radio/2019/02/22/exclusive-gordon-chang-our-republic-is-unsafe-when-mnuchin-is-in-the-room-with-chinese-officials/ ): Yeah, I think our expectation is to conclude this quickly. And if we get to the point, over the next few days, of making progress, recommending a meeting for you and President Xi in March.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah. So dependent on how they do over the next few days, I would certainly consider that. Okay?

(END TRANSCRIPT)

The American White House press gang — supposedly a select, elite, experienced group, mind you — proceed to ask about the owner of the NFL’s Super Bowl champion New England Patriots being accused of soliciting prostitution (now THERE’S a topic of national significance!), the public release (which would be illegal) of the obviously pointless report of Robert Mueller’s investigation into “Russian collusion by anyone except Hillary Clinton or Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS or John Kerry or Barack Obama or Nellie Orr or the Podesta Brothers,” the plans of Mr. Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen to violate attorney-client privilege if he ever, finally testifies before Congress next month (where he could do some public-relations damage to President Trump, you understand). . . and then . . .

Q: Mr. President, when do you want to have that meeting with President Xi? And do expect to have that at Mar-a-Lago?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Probably at Mar-a-Lago. Probably fairly soon, during the month of March. Bob, do you have a date? Steve, do you have a date?

SECRETARY MNUCHIN: We’re planning it with your schedule, Mr. President.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Okay, so there — we have two schedules. And we’ll be planning that with the schedule. . . .

(END TRANSCRIPT)

And then . . . no further follow-up? There’s time to talk about a prostitution bust in Florida — a potential misdemeanor fine — but no follow-up on THIS?

But there can be so MANY reasons for delay . . .

Again, the widespread and quite reasonable concern about these trade talks — THE TOPIC OF THIS MEETING — among many observers who have watched our dealings with the Red Chinese in the past has been that the Chinese would almost certainly attempt to throw us some bones — agreeing to buy more soybeans — while stalling on the major points of contention which would involve actually changing the way they do business — intellectual property theft and forced technology transfers — which allow them to make up for the fact that their system does not encourage internal innovation, by simply stealing technological innovations from the West without so much as paying a licensing fee — a form of theft which previous greedy American leaders have actually FACILITATED! (see Edward Timperlake’s book exposing how the Clintons sold out our Defense secrets to the Reds, “The Year of the Rat”:
( https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?bi=0&bx=on&cm_sp=SearchF-_-Advtab1-_-Results&ds=30&isbn=0895263335&recentlyadded=all&sortby=17&sts=t .)

President Trump starts out saying our largest group of tariffs — originally scheduled to go up from 10 percent to 25 percent on Dec. 1, but delayed to allow these current negotiations — will go up ON MARCH FIRST — a firm date.

Then, sure enough, with the prospect of meeting with Chinese President Xi “in early March” (which will likely become March 18 — watch) he says he might be willing to allow that March 1 deadline to slide.

Music to Chinese ears! They were right! As long as they can keep him talking, he’ll never enforce any deadline on the tariff hikes!

Next step: tell Trump’s clueless paper-shufflers nothing will be signed till he drops the prosecution of the crooked Chinese cell phone company Huawei! ( https://www.straitstimes.com/world/united-states/us-charges-chinas-huawei-with-bank-fraud-stealing-trade-secrets .)

Then instruct the North Koreans to rattle their sabers, kidnap some South Koreans . . . . Of course we can help you with that, Mr. Trump, but it means you’ll have to hold off on your new tariff hikes for a few more weeks, till we can get back to you. After all, dealing with North Korea isn’t easy . . .

President Xi will likely have to delay their next meeting for a few weeks due to health and scheduling problems, a small rebellion to be put down among the Muslims on his Western frontier, by Communist police using American facial-recognition and DNA technology. ( https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2019/02/22/china-using-american-made-equipment-to-track-uighurs-with-dna/ .)

Then, if necessary, he’ll visit Mar-A-Lago, smile and smile at the Trump grandchildren singing him a song in Chinese, and say “Hey, we’re buying your soybeans, let’s sign that part of the deal, you can say you got a deal, very good for you, very good publicity. Meantime, these complicated matters of intellectual property theft and forced technology transfers — which, for the record, are completely baseless charges — we can go back to discussing them in a few months . . .”

What’s that? A rogue Chinese admiral fired on some Taiwanese ships? Of course we’ll get to the bottom of that and see he’s properly punished, friend Trump . . . oh, these unpredictable hotheads, every nation has them! . . . though it may mean you’ll have to hold off for a few more weeks on your tariff hikes . . .”

Trust me, they now figure they can keep him talking for months or years, till their paid agents like Mark Warner and Nancy Pelosi can “do the job on him” and get him out of office, till he’s assassinated or defeated for re-election, whatever.

Presumably Mr. Trump sees this coming, and has purged enough of the Priebus-Kelly “we’re here to rein in Trump” gang that he’ll know how and when to pull the trigger, responding “Of course we can keep talking, for as many months as you like! The higher tariffs do go into effect at midnight tonight, mind you, but we’re ALWAYS happy to TALK.”

It’s not his first rodeo, after all.

But how long does he have? Clearly the paid Chinese/globalist agents in Congress have all kinds of plans in train to distract and/or neuter him, during their final two years before Congresscritters Sandy Occasional-Cortex and Rashida “Impeach the Motherfucker” Taliban and that other one who married her own brother blow up in their hands like a kid’s cherry bomb.

(Fortunately, not all members of Congress have been bought off by Wall Street globalists who make billions off Chinese trade — probably only those with a net worth of more than a million dollars (on a paltry salary of $174,000 a year!) can be safely listed in that club, and thank heavens they number only . . . 271, a MAJORITY OF CONGRESS, with Mark Warner of Virginia (net worth $200 million) and Nancy Pelosi of Cloud-Cuckooland (net worth $100 million) ranking among the Plutocrat Top Seven. ( https://moneynation.com/the-net-worth-of-congress/.)

Yet did a single American reporter LISTEN to what was going on, and then ask President Trump “Sir, let me get this straight: What the Chinese are obviously hoping to do now is keep you talking, while you endlessly delay more tariff hikes. You already let your tariff deadline slide from Dec. 1 to March 1. Now you’re talking about letting that slide till April First. So after President Xi meets with you later in March and smiles at your grandchildren at Mar-a-Lago and says he needs more time, are you going to let the deadline slide into May and June? Will you let them talk forever and never put the higher tariffs into effect, while they wait for their paid agents Nancy Pelosi and Turtle McConnell to distract or impeach or otherwise de-fang you?”

Why did that question never get asked — a question stemming directly from what the American reporters JUST HEARD — while they obviously thought it was MUCH more important to ask a pack of pre-scripted questions on such unrelated and sometimes hilariously minor matters as the owner of a football team allegedly being caught with a prostitute ( https://dailycaller.com/2019/02/23/smerconish-robert-kraft-smollett/ ), the arrest of some dork in the Coast Guard for making threats (“Do you think that you bear any responsibility for moderating your language when it comes to that. Mr. President?”), public housing in New York, et blooming cetera?

Because most of them are no longer reporters, and they don’t CARE whether Trump can succeed on behalf of the American worker. They’re propagandists promoting their own corporate agendas, which mostly amount to a daily update on “What can we use to hurt Donald Trump, today?”

And their editors approve.