I think we both know that surprises happen to the market and...

I think we both know that surprises happen to the market and yours is a highly nervous and pessimistic assessment. Every now and again though when under pressure, you do a pivot.

As for Xi, I believe he’d rather experience a decade of hardship than accept a plaza accord drafted by Trump.

Yes but what's the basis for that belief? Xi's powerbase is eroding by the day. It's not going to be about what's his choice. China isn't back in the days of Mao. You simply trot out beliefs and refer to things without any depth in your analysis to back it.

Plus it won't look like capitulation. Everyone knows saving face is seriously important to the Chinese. You either don't know about diplomacy or you're pretending not to. This will be couched as win/win.

I'm saying that China has a load of complex domestic pressures that make them far less dominant and stable than they appear. Leaders like Xi can be removed and will be removed if their policies are disastrous. The nation has a low tolerance for failure right now. Xi has overreached. He's on notice and he knows it. Deng Jnr and others who he didn't manage to round up in the latest purges for corruption, are breathing down his neck. How can you ignore these realities?

You mention US curtailing expansionist military policies of China. But that's NOT saying either side want war is it? That would be suicidaly stupid on both sides. China wants free access to trading routes but they've got so many internal domestic problems, they aren't in a position to do as much as the US politicians, (playing to their domestic constituencies) imagine. 

Plenty of sabre-rattling going on but at the end of the day both China and the US have to make this work. As I explained and you ignore, China is under much greater pressure than the US. Their export markets are predominately to the US. Their economy is threatening to implode under the force of the trade war, and all you can do is talk about form-over-substance,  freaking military policy? Seriously keep it real. The Chinese are on the back foot. 

Trump is doing a Teddy Roosevelt.

Meanwhile it's nice that you bear me no animosity especially since I've done you no wrong. Just tried to make you accountable. And flesh out arguments far beyond what should be necessary in order to have a reasonable discussion. When under pressure you pull a pivot...and suddenly it's all peace and love?

More importantly, how about being more realistic about the outlook for zinc? Commodities are generally bullish. This is the reality. There is going to be a whole lot of infrastructure being built not just in China, which isn't finished, but the US. You focus on very superficial movements IMO not the underlying drivers.