00:00If we use that time frame on the end of the war as perhaps the benchmark for when that trip
00:08to Beijing might be able to take place, and Steve will bring in on this point here, what more do
00:14we know beyond the around five or six weeks, and it pertains to the timeline there for the summit?
00:20You know, that's the only guideline we have right now is five to six weeks, and if Kevin Hassett is
00:26saying four to six weeks for the end of the war in Iran, so you can basically peg that the
00:34trip to China could possibly happen whenever the Trump administration determines that hostilities have subsided in Tehran.
00:44Keep in mind, China, the back-channel communications essentially and from sources telling Bloomberg that Beijing doesn't want to have
00:54anything to do necessarily with or even giving any kind of modicum of support by welcoming Donald Trump to Beijing
01:02at this time to give the impression that possibly Beijing is supporting whatever the Trump administration is doing, whether it's
01:11an excursion into Iran or outright war.
01:13They don't want necessarily, according to the sources, to be connected in that way.
01:19So a delay right now, while Donald Trump has sort of backtracked from some of his comments he made over
01:24the weekend where he said, I might delay this trip to China, which by the way is going to plan
01:29to happen in two weeks' time from now, I might back away from that if China doesn't come to our
01:34help securing the waterways in the Strait of Hormuz.
01:38Now, the Trump administration has backed away from that connection, essentially saying that's a false narrative, that's Scott Besson, the
01:45Treasury Secretary saying that.
01:47Jameson Greer, the U.S. trade representative, doubling down on that sentiment as well, saying the delay has no relation
01:53to the trade and economic talks at all.
01:56And again, essentially saying that this was, and Scott Besson reaffirming that this was because of the Trump has his
02:04hands full with the war and it's a logistical problem right now.
02:07But again, I would say Beijing has been very quiet on this matter.
02:11The spokesperson at the daily briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing yesterday pretty much said very little
02:20other than that they've been in contact with the United States on this matter.
02:24Yeah, there's a great beginning story that, you know, this is something that Trump does, right?
02:27Delays and pushes these foreign visits as a form of leverage.
02:31But leverage is certainly the key word here.
02:33Does this potentially in some way derail the progress when it comes to trade talks?
02:37I guess it, you know, who do you ask?
02:40We'll have a different answer to that.
02:42Jameson Greer is saying absolutely not, as I just read out his quote.
02:47They basically, their narrative coming out of those talks with He Li Feng over the weekend in Paris is that
02:52they are discussing.
02:54And it's something the Vice Commerce Minister of China also confirmed, that they're working on some sort of new framework
03:00to not formalize, but maybe have a different way of categorizing bilateral trade and other issues that might crop up
03:11between China and the United States to make it a little bit more permanent, that truce that we got in
03:16December.
03:17Does that derail?
03:19Maybe that's a stronger word than we can use right now.
03:22Maybe it simply takes a little bit of the steam out of the progress that was made in Paris, and
03:27it pushes that can, the proverbial can, further down the road.
03:31And it definitely puts into question whether those two leaders, Xi Jinping and Donald Trump, will be able to meet
03:37that goal, if you will, sort of an unofficial goal of having four meetings at various places over this year.
