SMALLER! STRUGGLING! NATIONS?

PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill and Chinese ambassador Xue Bing

AT THE economic forum in Papua New Guinea over the weekend, the United States and China openly clashed over trade in their most explosive diplomatic standoff of the Trump administration.

Mr. Pence and Mr. Xi each led delegations that sought to corral the other nations in attendance to side with his country......................

THE ESCALATING brinkmanship between the United States and China as they race to quash each other's global influence is forcing other nations to pick sides between the two superpowers, putting at risk future cooperation on geopolitical threats and a resolution to the economic standoff.

The rivalry, which has reached a new pitch and scope, is now centered on the trade war that President Trump started this year.

But tensions have also sharpened over a broad range of diplomatic and military issues, like Taiwan, the South China Sea and  economic sanctions on North Korea and Iran.

Across the globe, the United States and China are jockeying to build alliances or partnerships and shut out the other power. The hard-nosed competition surfaced last weekend at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, with Vice President Mike Pence pitted against President Xi Jinping of China.

The dispute threatens to disrupt a summit meeting of the Group of 20 leading economies that starts Nov 30 in Argentina.

The United States again vented its frustration on Tuesday, accusing China of continuing to engage in unfair trade practices despite Mr. Trump's tariffs.

''China fundamentally has not altered its acts, policies and practices related to technology transfer, intellectual property and innovation, and indeed appears to have taken further unreasonable actions in recent months,'' the Office of the United States Trade Representative said in a report.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly said China ''wants to make a deal very badly,''  but continues to warn that he will tax nearly all Chinese imports if Beijing does not open its markets to American companies and its unfair practices.''

China has been ripping off our country for many, many years,'' the president told reporters at the  White House. ''And they don't rip us off with me.''

In Beijing on Wednesday, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Geng Shuang, responded to such criticisms by pointing to a paper previously issued by the government that rebutted similar accusations.

''It is quiet normal to have  economic and trade fictions,'' he said at a news conference. ''The key is to resolve them through dialogue consultation on the basis of mutual respect, equality and good faith.

The honor and serving of the latest Global Operational Research on Trade Wars and Tariffs continues. World Students Society thanks authors and researchers Edward Wong and Alan Rappeport.