Adviser: Beijing caves on trade

China is making ‘‘extraordinary concessions’’ to America in the dramatic trade war between the two superpowers, according to one of President Donald Trump’s key advisers.

A lifelong China obsessive, Michael Pillsbury has worked as a CIA spy, fed information about the Soviets to Henry Kissinger and developed defence strategy for Ronald Reagan. The 73-yearold is now director of Chinese strategy at the Hudson Institute, a think tank.

Pillsbury has become known as Trump’s China muse and been brought into the president’s inner circle to develop strategy for the standoff with President Xi Jinping.

Last week, China started buying American soya beans for the first time since the trade war began in July. It also confirmed it would temporarily reduce tariffs on American cars.

‘‘China has made about four major concessions in recent weeks,’’ Pillsbury told The Sunday Times. ‘‘They’ve increased penalties for intellectual property theft. And they’re backing down over Made in China 2025 [a plan to make China a dominant producer of high-tech goods]. I’m feeling optimistic.’’

He added: ‘‘The Chinese see

Trump as a worthy opponent. But instead of saying, ’All right, we’re scared of President Trump,’ they come up with a whole new explanation for these changes in policy.’’

As the president was preparing for his high-stakes showdown with Xi at the G20 in Buenos Aires, Pillsbury was called into the Oval Office to offer his advice. ‘‘I told the president to see it as though it was a real estate deal in New York,’’ he said. ‘‘They are looking for the minimum price and for the minimum concessions that they have to make.’’

At the G20, Trump and Xi agreed to a 90-day pause in the trade war. Tariffs will not rise during this window as the world’s two biggest economies seek to hammer out a workable deal.

The fragile peace was immediately imperilled, though, by the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, a top executive at the technology giant Huawei, for allegedly violating American sanctions on Iran.

Meng was seized in Canada on the day Trump and Xi sat down in Argentina. She is now on bail awaiting possible extradition to America.

The daughter of Huawei’s founder, Ren Zhengfei, Meng is widely admired in China and her arrest has set off a diplomatic firestorm, with Canada trapped in the middle.

China has described Meng’s detention as ‘‘unreasonable, merciless and very evil’’. Two prominent Canadians in China, one a former diplomat, have been arrested in apparent retaliation.

On Wednesday, Trump waded into the Huawei row by saying he would consider halting the prosecution as a bargaining chip in the trade negotiations with China. This added to perceptions in China that Meng’s arrest was a political stunt. – Sunday Times

‘‘The Chinese see Trump as a worthy opponent. But instead of saying, ‘All right, we’re scared of President Trump,’ they come up with a whole new explanation for these changes in policy.’’ Michael Pillsbury, Trump adviser