The long and the short of the U.S.-China fisticuffs is that no trade barriers are coming down, and no new trade openings are popping up. China has gone rogue by putting export controls for rare earths and other commodities on the entire world. And of course, the U.S. has got to punch back. Scott Bessent is right, China is a command-and-control economy , and our allies will neither be commanded nor controlled.

Rare earth deals were struck in various meetings in London, Geneva, Madrid, but China is breaking the deals. Just like they broke the deal for the Phase One trade agreement that was signed in January 2020. They go rogue. Maybe the Commerce Ministry is going rogue. Maybe Xi is going rogue. Who knows. But China going rogue is gonna hurt them more than it hurts us. It's their economy

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