8000. Republicans come your opinions will come in on 202748 8001. Independents, your line will be 202748 8002. You can always text us your always ond we are social media at twitter and on cspan. K. Com tensions have been ratcheting up the last few days, with both countries forcing the other to close a key embassy in that other country. Ae wall street journal has story about that this morning that we will bring to you so i want to bring that story to you. The u. S. And china moved rapidly friday to shut down consulates and evict diplomats, unprecedented steps followed by calls on both sides to ease tension. Flareups between the worlds two biggest economies, even amid the move to avoid further acts of immediate excavation escalation. Aging ordered the shutdown of , describingsulate it as a necessary response after washington ordered china to consulate in houston. U. S. Defended the closure, citing unacceptable espionage and intellectual property theft linked to the outpost. As evidenced in his speech, secretary of state pompeo delivered at the Richard Nixon president ial library and museum in california this week. Once again, the speech from u. S. Secretary of state mike pompeo was one of the things we are talking about and we want to bring that speech to you this morning. Here is what mike pompeo said. Pompeo we have to face a hard truth that if we want a free 21st century and not the chinese century of which xi jinping dreams, the old paradigm of blind engagement with china simply wont get it done. We must not continue it. We must not return to it. As President Trump has made clear, we need a strategy that protects the American Economy and our way of life. The free world must triumph over this new tyranny. Jesse p we have another story fromoli we have another story from politico on the white house is thinking. In january, President Trump declared americas relationship with china might be the best it has been in a long time, praising chinese president xi jinping weeks after inking a first step trade deal. July, President Trump has sanctioned chinese officials over internment of muslims, revealed plans to enact visas for some chinese in the United States, restrict chinese journalists, shutter a diplomatic compound in houston, and vowed retaliation for beijings handling of the coronavirus after praising its efforts. As for trump and xi, they havent spoken since march. We want to talk to the reporter who is writing this for politico, meredith mcgraw. Meredith good morning. Jesse it seems the relationship between the white house and chinas top leader seems to be deteriorating here. Is one of the lowest moments weve seen in terms of the United States and chinas relationship, as you outlined earlier. Weve seen that escalate in the past week, particularly with china asking the u. S. To shut down its consulate in chengdu and the u. S. Shuttering the consulate in houston and this also comes on the heels as weve seen the Trump White House really pick up their public rhetoric against china in the past few weeks. Weve seen a flurry of press conferences, opeds, highprofile speeches like the one from secretary of state pompeo, recently overseas trips, bigit has really been this push from the Trump Administration to outline issues, specific issues they have with china and make the case to the American People for some of the retaliatory things we have seen from the Trump Administration recently like tariffs, sanctions, things like that. Tensions have started to boil over between these two of the worlds biggest economic superpowers. Jesse what was the change that happened here . The changed between relationship between the u. S. And china that caused these tensions to ratchet up . President trump had been more thoughtful about his rhetoric earlier this year when they were trying to negotiate a trade deal that was so important to his administration but of course we saw that rhetoric start to change with the coronavirus pandemic. The president in the past few weeks has been frankly furious with china. Over the handling of the coronavirus and weve also seen the chinese have really picked up some of their actions, as well. Whether it is movements in the south china sea, which secretary of state pompeo said was unlawful, and their treatment of and thethnic minorities shanking province, that has been shenzhen province. That has been going on a wild the administration has used this moment to take some retaliatory efforts against them, and the administration when i talked to officials about china and what weve seen in the past few weeks, they said a lot of their actions have been a long time coming, and theyve been months and months in the making, but it is all coming to a head right now. Jesse do we expect any highlevel conversations between United States officials and chinese officials to bring the tensions back down . Meridith at this point, i do not see that happening in the near future, and the president himself has said he has no interest in talking to chinese president xi jinping. We will have to see how things go in the coming weeks but it doesnt seem like right now, we are going to see any of those conversations happening in the immediate future. Jesse is there any political advantage for democrats or republicans right now for relations with china to be ratcheting up into these tensions we see . Meridith oh, definitely. It in polling that china continues to be a top issue for the public, especially in the wake of the coronavirus. Issuehas always been an that people have been concerned about just in terms of the now, chinabs, but has become a Real National security issue for a lot of americans so when they go to fill out their ballot in november, it is certainly going to be one of the things that is andof mind for americans, it continues to be something that the president is going to have to try to win over the American People in terms of how hes handled the coronavirus. Prettyinues to poll thaty on that so showing the administration is going to show some force against china, certainly helps the Trump Administration politically. Jesse are we seeing any hit one way or the other hint one way or the other of how congress is reacting to these increased tensions or is what we are hearing mostly coming from the white house . There are a lot of china hawks in congress and certainly some are close to the president in the white house, senator cotten, senator graham, but there has been bipartisan support for taking action against china, particularly when it comes to their treatment of ethnic minorities in zhang zhang. The president signed a couple of weeks ago. Hong kong autonomy changes the way we deal with hong kong because of encroaching on hong kongs writes and that was billhelmingly bipartisan that the president signed so there is some support from capitol hill. Jesse what is on the president s schedule this week . Meridith the president is going to be making some tricks this week. Monday, tomorrow, we will be seeing him travel to north is going toere he be touring a planned and also, hes expected to make some remarks on vaccines and hes too expected to travel coronavirus hotspot. Hes going to texas, west texas for some fundraisers later this week and i actually asked the press secretary during her news wakerence on friday if, in of the spike in cases weve seen in texas and the president s decision to not hold of the convention in florida over safety concerns because of the anynavirus, if they had plans to change his schedule or travel or anything like that, and she said no. Right now, they are going to stick with what they have and to have health and safety precautions for when the president does travel, but it is interesting to watch him get back out on the road. Week,n new jersey this but we havent seen him hold any rallies, or big political events since oklahoma. Jesse if you had one thing to focus on this week for our viewers, what should they be paying attention to coming out of the white house . Meridith they should definitely be looking at whatever happens in terms of negotiations between the white house and folks on capitol hill, especially as the clock is ticking for these jobless benefits to expire. And thepens on july 31, white house and republican lawmakers have really struggled in their talks in coming to an agreement on some things, and we are going to see those conversations continue this week. Something that impacts millions of americans and a lot of people are waiting to see what they can actually get done. Jesse wed like to thank meridith mcgraw, politicos White House Reporter for getting up with us this morning. We want to know what you think about the escalating tensions between the u. S. Is there going to be a new cold war between china and the United States . Once again, we are opening up our regular lines. Democrats, you call 202748 8000. Republicans, 2027488001. Independents, your line will be 2027488002. Keep in mind, you can always text us at 2027488003. And we are always reading on nd on facebook on facebook. Com cspan. We will start with brian from illinois on the independent line. Good morning. One of the problems in this country is we dont know history and we dont examine political failures. Our handling of our relationship with china has been a horrific mistake. Made a huges error when he gave china wto. Now we are entering another cold war. To build upspending against china is going to be hundreds of billions of dollars. China was supposed to be our friends once we opened up and allowed american industry to move to china but the opposite has occurred. Chemchina is wealthy and are using their wealth to build their military. This is all very predictable, but the fat cats wall street wanted that cheap asian labor, so i think people that have to have products sourced from china should pay a surtax to pay for our military buildup and pay for all the security measures we have to take with the internet and the World Wide Web because of chinese hacking of everything. It is unbelievable what has occurred so that a few people in wall street can get filthy rich. The american working class is thrown under the bus and we are told that is great, that is the way it had to be. No, it was a massive mistake and we need to Start Talking about our political mistakes. Jesse lets go to richard calling from sparta, new jersey on the democratic line. Good morning. Caller good morning. Please give me one minute. Is really notng about trade. It is what has been happening all along. It has been designed to create this president has been creating chaos in the country. This is willful him and dividing the country, making states lose. Doing the thing with china, other things. He is trying to take away Peoples Health care. Everything to create chaos. When the pandemic came along, i he responded with incompetence, but he saw an opportunity to create chaos and he has. Creating chaos. Now hes got a private army which is raised miraculously in a couple of weeks, creating more chaos. Chaos provides opportunity. You can expect a coup in october. It is not a joke. Create as much chaos has possible. Lose thehes going to election so his only opportunity is to create the conditions for a coup and i expect one to happen. Im afraid. Jesse ronald is calling from monroe township, new jersey on the independent line. Caller good morning. If the United States wants to world,its power in the it is going to have to learn how to get along with all kinds of nations and nations with all ands of economic systems, the gerrymandering that has been was 1 . Posedly it was a billiondollar election. The gerrymandering being done is by the Koch Brothers over a 50 year period since the election of barry goldwater, and it is done here in the United States, we have to stop doing what is politically correct and start doing what is morally correct and take care of correcting ourselves and not trying to correct the whole world all the time. From lets go to Brendan Brenda from houston, texas on the democratic line. Caller thanks for taking my call. Wow, that wouldnt be very wise for america to get into some with imtion sorry, ive lost my thought. China, my point is manufacturs our masks, war missiles, and because of the ungodly greed of Corporate America and the republicans. Theyve really gotten us into a real pickle and the man in the white house is the problem. He is the problem. Is causing the downfall of america. Thanks for taking my call. Jesse lets see what the reaction has been in china to this rising tension between the United States and the backcountry. Lets go to jonathan cheng, the wall street journals china bureau chief who will join us from beijing, china. Jonathan, good morning. Jonathan thanks for having me. Jesse what has the reaction in china to the closing of the u. S. China consulate in houston, texas . Was a big surprise to people in china and in america, as well. I dont think anyone had foreseen that outcome even though we know u. S. China ties have been getting worse by the day. Many people have said it is the worst moment now since 1979 when and the u. S. Reestablished diplomatic ties. But a lot about that, of people in china were pretty stunned by how quickly things have happened. Beijing has shut the u. S. Consulate in the southwestern city of chengdu. There has been quite a scene outside that consulate as the and look at what is happening in chengdu and watch the relationship coming apart. Jesse do we see more retaliation coming . Do you expect any more u. S. Consulates in china closing or perhaps more china consulates in the United States will be closing . Right now issense there is parity. I think china has been careful that it isits end not going further than what the u. S. Has done and chronologically, the u. S. Shut down the consulate in houston first, so if chinese at this point were to want to do anything, it would be to leave things as they are right now. I dont know that i would guess this is the end of it. One has to think that if it is not a shuttering of the consulate, you have to think there will be some action from one side or the other simply because we are caught in this spiral here, so it may not happen on the diplomatic front. There have been fights on the human rights side, the trade side, on media side. There are all sorts of different fronts in this war right now, so we are all trying to figure out what the next one is, but i dont know that you can predict it right now. Jesse to be here conversation in china right now about attempting to open up highlevel negotiations with the United States or is it like you said . Sit back and wait what is next . Jonathan it is probably somewhere in between. I imagine there probably are back channel outreaches here to see whether or not they can message this, but there is a sense in china that talking isnt going to make much of a difference with the Trump Administration simply because mike pompeo in particular has planted his flag. This is his position and this is what they will be doing and if anything it is bracing for countermeasures to the sort of throwback at the u. S. For what they do next and things arent perfectly symmetrical in many ways. The two economies are closer in size, but the chinese economy is still much smaller than the u. S. We saw that during the trade war last year the china found it hard to match the u. S. Pound for pound. In terms of what happens next, they may struggle to match what the u. S. Is doing. Jesse we were talking earlier in the show about how quickly the relationship between china and the u. S. Has changed, from trade war to china being the best friend of the Trump Administration this year to back to where we are now. What is the impression of the relationship between china and the u. S. In china . It isan i do think probably pretty common with what a lot of americans are thinking, which is things are going downhill. I dont know there is any other sensible interpretation to what is going on but many people in china still do admire many things about the u. S. They still consume a lot of u. S. Entertainment, they love the nba. Many of them go to the u. S. To vacation. Many of them have studied in the u. S. Or have family members studying in the u. S. , so there is still a lot of the soft power of goodwill that his residual, but obviously, this back and forth is going to take a toll on that as im sure is happening the other way around in the u. S. There is amongll ordinary americans to china. Jesse how much tension do we being attention do we see paid to the upcoming election . Is this even being talked about among the people of china or the officials in china . Jonathan definitely among the officials in china and i would say probably among the politically minded people in china. There are people in every country of the rolled that dont tune into politics much but anybody watching anything political in china has got to be keeping a close eye on trump and biden in the fall and a lot of people are debating whether or not trump or biden would be the person they want to see in the oval office come next year. Jesse has been the response from the china government to the accusations of hacking and spying that the u. S. Laid upon it from the consulate in houston . Jonathan well, the official line is it is hogwash. Doing, not what we are and the u. S. Is shutting down its consulate merely because it trumps increase toughness going into the election so he can go to the electorate and say ive been tougher on china than joe biden is going to be. Hiking privately, everyone would it knowledge a lot of these consulates for any country, in any other country, there is going to be an element of information gathering and at what point it bleeds into intelligence. I think there is an acknowledgment of reality that this happens on both sides, but the thing is that the u. S. Hasnt shown all its cards and maybe it off not to but when it doesnt, it is hard to know what has gone on in houston is beyond the pale, according to the standards of what diplomacy generally is like. Jesse for the internationally minded viewers, what should we be keeping our eyes on . What news should be watching coming out