Poetry? Proverb? Cliche? “Hope springs eternal” is part of a rhyming couplet from An Essay on Man by the poet Alexander Pope, a central figure in the Neoclassical movement of the early 18th century. Hope springs eternal in the human breast, Man never is, but always to be blest … Poetic sentiments which appear to mirror a softening in the diplomatic rhetoric between China and the United States as the trade war drags on into the winter. Yet as a proverb and later a cliche to express renewed optimism, “hope springs eternal’’ graphically illustrates the mood of top diplomat Wang Yi and Yang Jiechi, a member of the powerful Politburo. After his meeting with US National Security Adviser John Bolton at the White House, Yang was upbeat about solving a brutal economic conflict following a summer of discontent and an autumn of bickering. Involved in outlining an agenda for the planned mini summit between China’s President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump at the G20 gathering of global leaders in Buenos Aires later this month, he called for “cooperation” and “dialogue.” Economic Cold War “The two sides [should] strengthen communication and coordination, promote dialogue and manage differences properly,” he told Xinhua, the state-run news agency. “We must carefully prepare for the meeting of the two heads of state … [as] the nature of the China-US trade relationship is mutually beneficial. Both sides have to work out an acceptable solution through negotiations on an equal and mutually beneficial basis,” Yang,… [Read full story]
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