China Afternoon Missive And the TikTok saga continues. Notice how there’s been zero public commentary of late on the deal either from the Trump team or from the Oracle-led investment consortium. But I’m not here to harp on the deal itself. What I found of far greater interest was this linked Bloomberg opinion piece from the company’s editorial board. Of particular interest was the following statements. “Officials have been warning about TikTok for years. The app collects a lot of information about its users, including keystrokes and location data; it serves up content according to an opaque algorithm that might be used to censor or manipulate Americans; and its parent company must, by law, answer to the Chinese government.” Um, that exact statement perfectly sums up the entire social media complex in the United States. And the Bloomberg editorial board misses, entirely, the hypocrisy of its statement. The TikTok deal was never about “national security”, it was an exercise in regulatory capture in its rawest form. Meta, Google and their brethren simply couldn’t compete with a better performing algorithm and with it a massive loss in ad revenue. Why compete and build a better UX/UI when you can use your Washington connections to kneecap a rival. There’s no question that, in the end, a deal for TikTok will be made. I’ll also repeat myself here and state that China is seeking a Taiwan quid pro quo deliverable in return. What I do find ironic is how, ultimately, the acquisition of TikTok will prove to be a “poisoned chalice.” Not just for the investment consortium, but for Trump as well.

Bloomberg.com

The TikTok Deal Still Doesn’t Add Up

TikTok, the Chinese-owned viral-video platform that counts about 20% of the world’s population as users, has long raised red flags among US natio...

China Morning Missive Not only is there no concrete China policy out of the Trump administration, I am here to also state that the boys in Beijing are very well aware of this fact and are acting accordingly. Two days ago, the business media complex ran with Sec Bessent’s comment that “China want to pull the entire world down with them.” Recoiling from the decision by China to impose tighter export controls, Bessent’s frustration in dealing with the Chinese reached a breaking point of sorts. There was the late last week quip by Trump himself of a new threat of 100% across the board tariffs. That, of course, was walked back before futures opened on Sunday night. Now we have Bessent talking about “decoupling” while in the same breath raising the prospects of a “long truce”. Having personally dealt with Chinese counterparties far more than your average person, what you are seeing is the exact outcome the Beijing negotiators have been seeking. Act in a highly mercurial manner with the objective of frustrating those sitting across the table. Do so long enough and that party will snap, putting them off balanced. Bessent would have had far greater success trying to nail Jello to a wall. The only tactic the Chinese respond to is steely, aggressive determination. The unmovable object. There is no middle ground ever. To make this point a bit clearer, allow me to provide a more real-world example. If you run a business in China, you’ll, obviously, manage Chinese employees and these individuals only have two operating modes. (1) they work and work hard under a deeply seeded concern of losing their job or (2) no real concern is evident in the workplace and with that they will seek out and press aggressively any identified advantage. There are, of course, exceptions but what I’ve laid out here is the rule. I have no idea who is advising the Trump team, but I can assure you those advisors have no idea what they are doing. Failure on a epic scale.

Bloomberg.com

Bessent Floats Longer-Term China Truce After Rare Earths Gambit

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent dangled the possibility of extending a pause of import duties on Chinese goods for longer than three months if ...

America takes the path of weaponizing trade and the message conveyed is “suck it up”. China decides to enter the arena and go mano a mano and, well, you get Bessent playing the victim card. This isn’t at all the sort of America I grew up in Bessent tells the FT that China wants 'to pull everybody else down with them'

CNBC

Bessent tells the FT that struggling China wants 'to pull everybody else down with them'

Bessent accused China of trying to weaken the global economy by slapping export controls on resources vital for technology.

Again, for those interested, this short clip from a recent interview provides some China insight you won’t hear elsewhere. You’ve all read the stories of foreigners running afoul with the Chinese authorities. Arrests. Show trials ….. Well, in this clip I provide some much needed context. Always remember. Where there’s smoke there is fire.

Tim Cook making yet another pilgrimage to China. And of course there has to be a Labubu event to go along with his visit. #2025