No breakthrough or even a substantial agreement is expected to result from the latest round of talks between China and the United States that began Tuesday in Shanghai to end's Trump's year-long trade war against China.
Any semblance of success has been precluded by Trump's previous statements China intends to draw-out the talks until after the 2020 U.S. presidential election. There is a better than even chance Trump, who keeps trailing putative Democratic Party presidential bet Joe Bidden in poll after poll, will lose his re-election bid.
Trump has always said China prefers dealing with the Democrats, who he keeps claiming are soft on China.
Trump on Saturday accused China of using stalling tactics to deny him a deal.
"I think that China will probably say 'let's wait,'" said Trump. "'Let's see if one of these people who give the United States away, let's see if one of them could get elected.'"
An indication of the low expectations both sides have that negotiation will lead to anything meaningful can be seen in the extremely low-key fashion under which the talks are taking place. There are none of the boisterous made-for-media statements from Trump claiming huge success in the offing.
Even the normally reticent Chinese have refrained from raising hopes -- or saying anything at all -- about the ongoing talks. The almost defeatist atmosphere surrounding the talks has led some Western observers to question why the talks are being held at all.
Chinese state-run media carried almost no coverage of the talks and there are no reports or pictures of the U.S. delegation led by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin arriving in Shanghai. Oddly, there are no signs announcing the trade talks at the lobby of the Hyatt on the Bund Hotel where the US delegation is staying.
Only Chinese state-run media outfits and a chosen few social media leaders have been permitted to report or even comment on the trade talks.
This is the first face-to-face meeting between top trade envoys of both sides since talks dramatically collapsed in May after Trump went ahead and levied 25 percent tariffs on $300 billion worth of Chinese goods imported to the U.S.
The complete itinerary of the U.S. trade delegation is also being kept secret for some reason. What the media knows is China will host a dinner at the Fairmont Peace Hotel by the Huangpu River on Tuesday evening.
