A fake email pretending to be from Rep. Moolenaar was sent to U.S. agencies during key China trade talks

Right before trade talks between the ￰0￱ China kicked off in Sweden last July, a fake email shook things up in ￰1￱ working on the House committee dealing with ￰2￱ with China started getting weird ￰3￱ confusion started after law firms, lobby groups, and ￰4￱ got an email that looked like it came from ￰5￱ ￰6￱ asked for ideas on sanctions that lawmakers might use against ￰7￱ problem is, Moolenaar never sent ￰8￱ email was totally ￰9￱ it landed at a tense moment, right as the Trump team was gearing up for another round of dead-end negotiations with ￰10￱ to the Journal, staffers couldn’t figure out who was behind the fake message, but the timing made everyone ￰11￱ clearly wanted to throw sand in the gears just as the ￰12￱ China tried, yet again, to fix their ￰13￱ Chenggang visits but dodges top ￰14￱ While the fake Moolenaar email was bouncing around Washington, China was doing its own quiet ￰15￱ Chenggang, a top official under Vice Premier He Lifeng, flew into ￰16￱ the end of ￰17￱ his trip wasn’t set up by the White ￰18￱ wasn’t even cleared with top-level ￰19￱ didn’t meet Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent or Trade ￰20￱ Greer.

Instead, he met with lower-ranking people at the Treasury, Commerce Department, and USTR. “The meetings were not productive,” one person close to the talks ￰21￱ stuck to China’s usual script, cut the tariffs, and lift export bans on ￰22￱ he didn’t offer anything ￰23￱ visit didn’t push negotiations ￰24￱ showed that Xi Jinping was sticking to a playbook: stay in the room, keep the optics good, but give up nothing. Xi’s message was ￰25￱ wants to look like the adult in the room without actually giving up ￰26￱ same week, Xi was seen with leaders from India, Russia, North Korea, and ￰27￱ optics? A big show of global friendship that stood in sharp contrast to Trump’s “America First” ￰28￱ war stuck over soybeans, fentanyl, and tariffs Inside the talks, the same fights dragged ￰29￱ demanded that the ￰30￱ its ￰31￱ wanted the ban lifted on American tech ￰32￱ repeated those points during his ￰33￱ but didn’t back them up with real ￰34￱ fentanyl fight also got ￰35￱ asked China to stop the flow of chemicals used in the drug’s ￰36￱ according to people involved, Beijing said ￰37￱ want the ￰38￱ first remove the 20% tariffs on China’s goods , which were slapped on because of China’s alleged role in the fentanyl ￰39￱ Agriculture was another war ￰40￱ had told China to buy more American soybeans, but so far, Beijing hadn’t ￰41￱ claimed that China had been shrinking its orders for the past 18 ￰42￱ pulled meat-processing certificates, turned to other countries for grain, and stocked up early to avoid buying during the ￰43￱ ￰44￱ the harvest just weeks away, American farmers were on ￰45￱ big soybean orders had come ￰46￱ feared China would skip ￰47￱ ￰48￱ on August 22, China’s ambassador to the U.

S., Xie Feng, let it rip at a soybean industry ￰49￱ said America’s protectionism was “casting a shadow over ￰50￱ cooperation.” That line landed ￰51￱ wasn’t just about ￰52￱ was about the whole trade ￰53￱ despite all the shouting, the two countries agreed on one small thing; they would keep current tariffs in place through early ￰54￱ meant no new penalties, no new ￰55￱ also agreed to relax export controls on a few specific products, like rare-earth magnets from China and select ￰56￱ ￰57￱ came a TV ￰58￱ Secretary Bessent told Fox News, “We’re very happy” with where things stood. “I think right now the status quo is working pretty well,” he added, referring to tariffs on ￰59￱ Bybit now and claim a $50 bonus in minutes