I now find out that whenever I try to copy and paste from my hotmail account, where I keep my files, my posts on the CMF fail to show up. I could do that on the CMF some years ago and I can do that on other forums today. So, there must be something incompatible between hotmail and the CMF. I won't spend more effort in futility.

My reply to your post is mainly in support to you arguments-- with a little addition, for example, China had to be rational and restrained in the past because it was a weaker power than the US and, even today, still relies on some critical US technologies (e.g. Huawei mobile phones.. etc). But now China is forced to respond forcifully since Trump had started the war...

To me, this US-China "trade war" is a war of ambitions: China's ambition is to become an economic and technological leader-- like so many Western countries have done. The West's ambition,especially murrika's ambition, is to make China have no ambitions.

SCMP 2018年8月21日 — In defending the tariffs, the Trump administration has cited China's ambition to become a world leader in tech and innovation, detailed in the “Made in China 2025” plan.

THAT remainds me of a scene in Boardwalk Emipre: A white FBI agent made a comment about "Blacks having ideas" in the prensence of a Black agent. A China that has ambitions is like a Black "having ideas"-- both are unacceptable to the white supremacists.

Without the ability to copy and paste, the above is too much typing for me already. ;-)