The high-profile China-US Busan Summit came to a successful conclusion. Trump immediately left for the United States. There were still two wars waiting for him at home.
On October 30th, the heads of state of China and the United States met in Busan, South Korea.
After talking with China, Trump didn't even attend the APEC Leaders' Informal Meeting, so he took Air Force One back to the United States, because there are still two major events in the United States that will be "burning" immediately.
Location selection: Three considerations behind low-key
It was no accident that the meeting was chosen at the Air Force Base on the west side of Busan Gimhae International Airport in South Korea and was specially arranged in an "inconspicuous conference room". It was a precise design that took into account safety, efficiency and atmosphere.
The first is security and privacy first: The air base is the headquarters of the 5th Aviation Regiment of the Korean Air Force. It is heavily guarded and can isolate external interference to the greatest extent.
For large countries such as China and the United States, closed-door talks involve core issues such as tariffs, rare earth, global governance, and must avoid the focus of the media on multilateral occasions and the noise of public opinion, creating conditions for honest communication.
Secondly, it meets the efficiency needs of "along-the-way diplomacy": The core goal of Trump's trip to Asia is to complete bilateral "transactions", and he has little interest in APEC's multilateral agenda.
Kimhai airport as an air gateway, from the return route he needs to deal with domestic affairs later, after the talks can directly board the "Air Force One" back home, province to return to Chongqing main venue.
Finally weaken the sense of ritual and highlight pragmatism.: Without the red carpet and complex etiquette, the "inconspicuous conference room" instead sends the signal of "focusing on issues and getting straight to the subject."
After all, the trade friction between China and the United States has continued for the last six months, and the two sides need more dialogue to resolve actual differences such as rare earth, soybean exports and tariffs, rather than ceremonial shows.
This is not a multilateral diplomatic event, but a bilateral deal with a clear goal.
The content of the talks is not complicated either. China expressed its willingness to maintain cooperation and expressed its attitude of stabilizing Sino-US economic and trade relations.
The two sides did not sign a new agreement, but the talks somehow stopped the downward momentum.
Trump did not attend the welcome dinner arranged for him by the South Korean government, nor did he attend the APEC Leaders 'Informal Meeting.
It was not the first time he jumped on multilateral occasions.
For Trump, recently attending the ASEAN summit was also to sign a rare-earth agreement with ASEAN countries, and now come to South Korea, in addition to investing in Latin America is to use South Korea's third-party location to complete his one-on-one meeting.
APEC talks about “Asia-Pacific cooperation,” but Trump is more concerned about “America’s profits.”
More importantly, domestic affairs can't wait.
One of the smoke of war: U.S. fiscal stall for a month, internal confrontation escalates
The first thing I do when I return home is to deal with the financial crisis.
Since October 1, the federal government has been shut down due to the failure to pass the budget, and by October 30, it has been shut down for 29 days.
This is the second longest government crisis in history, and the central contradiction lies in the budget issue.
The Democratic Party calls for increased investment in public services such as medical insurance and education, while the Republican Party calls for spending cuts and priority protection of national defense and infrastructure.
During the impasse, 750,000 federal employees were forced to suspend salaries, thousands were dismissed, and hundreds of projects were frozen.
Meanwhile, Trump’s response strategy is to increase pressure.
Suspension of subsidies, freezing of Blue State appropriations, and suspension of new energy funding is simply forcing the opposition to compromise.
But this is not solving the problem, but creating more contradictions.
On October 29, 25 states, including California, New York, and Illinois, jointly sued the federal government, accusing the White House of unconstitutionality.
This means that the fiscal crisis has evolved from a legislative impasse to a confrontation between the federal and state.
Trump must go back and deal with this situation personally. No matter how lively APEC is, it is no more urgent than a fiscal shutdown.
War Smoke 2: Situation in Venezuela has changed dramatically, U.S. military deployment is on the verge of real war
Meanwhile, another war is heating up in the Caribbean.
Recently, the United States has repeatedly accused the Venezuelan government of colluding with drug cartels and threatening regional security. Since August, the U.S. military has deployed the "Ford" aircraft carrier battle group in the Caribbean Sea, and has repeatedly sent B-1B bombers to approach Venezuelan airspace.
For the last time, just 35 kilometers from the coastline, Trinidad and Tobago became joint U.S. military exercising bases, with the Maritime and Airline Three exercising simultaneously.
This is not an exercise, it is real war preparation.
Congress has begun to promote a "limited military strike" against Venezuela.
And this leads to another sensitive operation.
The CIA launched "Operation False Flag" to find a reason for the war?
According to Defense News and several Latin American intelligence sources, the CIA is planning an operation called the Caribbean Shield.
On October 27, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Ivan Hill publicly announced that Venezuela had destroyed a criminal network funded by the CIA and arrested mercenaries directly linked to the agency.
Hill said the mercenaries were originally tasked with carrying out a “fake-flag” operation to attack the destroyer “Gravely” stationed in the waters of Trinidad and Tobago and then blame Venezuela for the attack, seeking an excuse for the U.S. to launch a military strike on Venezuela.
Earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump had authorized the CIA to conduct secret operations in Venezuela. This authorization allows the CIA to conduct “fatal operations” in Venezuela and the Caribbean, and can be combined with larger U.S. military operations.
The United States also launched a large-scale military operation in the waters near Venezuela on the grounds of "combating drug trafficking."
It is noteworthy that this kind of “fake flag” operation is not the first.
From the Cold War to the Iraq War, the U.S. has grown to make “reasonable justifications” before weapons are used.
So, in this way, Trump's decision to return home from Busan speed was to go back to pack up a bunch of problems.
Looking back, during this trip to Asia, Trump exchanged Sino-US negotiations for economic and trade buffers, made up the financial gap with Korea-US investment agreements, and diverted domestic contradictions with foreign military actions.
Generally speaking, every step is to stabilize the situation and fight on two fronts, but the outcome is unpredictable.
Busan is only a transition point for diplomacy, not an end. Trump is facing not just two crises, but two wars that may determine his political destiny.
Sino-US relations have temporarily stopped falling, but the two lines of domestic finance and external security are still pulling.
I am not afraid of fighting on two fronts, but I am afraid that there is no way out.
This game has just begun.