Meanwhile, the problem of the dollar-yuan exchange rate is placed squarely in the context of intense trade frictions, sanctions-driven global economic warfare, U.S.-China military confrontations in East Asia and China's angst about America's widely publicized prompt global strike capabilities to maintain its unquestioned world dominance.
And in what China might take as a move to rain on Xi's parade on Wednesday, October 18, Washington is stepping up its bomber and nuclear submarine missions over and around the Korean Peninsula, and freedom of navigation forays with a destroyer operating in the vicinity of Paracel Islands that China considers its territorial waters. Beijing had to respond by dispatching to that area a missile frigate, two fighter jets and a military helicopter, in addition to lodging a strong protest with the U.S.
That latest episode in the South China Sea clearly shows that a U.S.-China "win-win cooperation," constantly urged by Xi, is a pipedream. China's maritime borders are not the dotted blue line. For Beijing, it is an inviolable thick and continuous red line, a marker of its territorial integrity. Xi keeps repeating that these borders are a sacred legacy since ancient times to the present generation working on the "Chinese Dream – a great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation." You will probably hear a lot more of that talk this week, when the young and newly-elected cadres in the permanent party committee, the politburo and the central military commission take a pride of place in the Great Hall of the People.
But, as the Asians like to say, never mind. China will extend a warm welcome to Trump during his state visit early next month. Beijing will also hold firmly to its refrain of "win-win cooperation" to (in a theatrical sense) "save the appearances."
It remains to be seen how long that scenario will last. Xi, China's revered "core leader," is expected to come out stronger after the party meeting, with a younger group of enthusiastic supporters. It would, therefore, not be a far-fetched thought to anticipate a much more assertive China.
Under these circumstances, a push for implementing the "trinity of reforms" might appear as a decisive effort to get away from what China perceives as economic, political and strategic constraints imposed by the dollar-dominated global system of trade and finance.