The South China Morning Post is reporting that a deal on trade tariffs between the United States and China is close to being completed. The deal is expected to be announced on Saturday when Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping meet privately at the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan.

According to the South China Morning Post:

Details of the agreement are being laid out in press releases in advance of the meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump at the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan, this weekend, according to three sources – one in Beijing and two in Washington.
Such an agreement would avert the next round of tariffs on an additional US$300 billion of Chinese imports, which if applied would extend punitive tariffs to virtually all the country’s shipments to the United States.

That means, folks, that while the mainstream media was positively euphoric over the Democrat Debates, grownups in the real world were getting real work done to protect our workers and our products. Speaking of the Dem Debates, you should read Nina’s post on the Julian Castro “trans women abortion” comment. You can read it here. Can you imagine any of the Democrat candidates that were on stage last night in trade talks with the Chinese? I know. I laughed, too.

More from the SCMP article:

The Trump administration has threatened to slap duties of up to 25 per cent on the remaining untaxed Chinese goods if this weekend’s talks go poorly.
One source with knowledge of the planning said Trump’s decision to delay additional tariffs was Xi’s price for holding the meeting in Osaka.

President Trump explained more on the trade tariff semi-war with China in this phone interview with Maria Bartiromo:

Trump is right. We have rebuilt China. We have lost billions to them over the years and China is stealing our intellectual capital.

Trump is also right that China needs this deal. China’s economy is contracting. Just how much does China need this deal on trade tariffs? From the SCMP article, this is a huge tell:

But China has largely remained tight-lipped. Before going to Japan, Xi called a meeting on Monday with the other 24 members of the Politburo, the Communist Party’s inner circle.
Other than a terse and heavily scripted report afterwards, there was little information about what the cadres discussed but official media offered some clues.
Immediately after the meeting, Xi arranged a special study session for the Politburo on “remembering the mission and conducting self-revolution”, according to party journal Qiushi.
“Self-revolution” is a term often used to refer to the need to overcome petty local interests for the greater good of the party.

China needs this deal, that is why there was a “study session” on self-revolution.

The trade tariffs deal with China may be about 90% there, but China has reneged before. If a trade tariff deal is announced on Saturday, that means that the Nancy Pelosi-style self-revolution worked and everybody got whipped into shape. If a deal is not announced, Xi Jinping is slipping in power.

Meanwhile, we get treated to another Democrat Debate tonight. Victory Girls will cover it. Jesus take the wheel.

Photo Credit: Shealah Craighead/Flickr/Wikimedia Commons.org/Public Domain