CHINA/IMPEACHMENT/TRADE WAR/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump just tossed his most pressing economic issue into the morass of impeachment politics. Trump’s suggestion Thursday [10-3-19] that Beijing should investigate a political rival, moments after threatening America’s ‘tremendous power’ in the ongoing trade talks with China, exposes his long-running negotiations with the world’s No. 2 economy to new scrutiny and could cast a political shadow over the results. Trump’s characteristic conflation of issues comes just a week before Chinese officials are due to arrive for a 13th round of trade talks in Washington. Even if Trump’s comments don’t shift the dynamic at the negotiating table, people who have been tracking every twist in the trade talks say the president’s statement will cloud how any outcome from the talks is received by Trump’s Democratic opponents and other U.S. policymakers.”
–Adam Behsudi, “Trump throws an impeachment stink bomb into China trade talks,” Politico, October 3, 2019 6:02 pm