Perhaps out of concern that his former boss might be pushing Robert Lighthizer and Steve Mnuchin to cave on enforcement, technology transfers and market access for the sake of securing a deal with Beijing, former White House Chief strategist Steve Bannon appeared alongside hedge fund manager Kyle Bass, Wall Street's most visible China bear, to try and explain why Washington needs to stick to its guns and make sure Beijing is held to account for its decades of trade abuses.

Bass, who just the other day distributed his first investor letter in three years warning about a coming blowup in Hong Kong's balance of payments, argued that the immense pressure for Trump to strike a deal isn't coming from voters, but from Wall Street and corporate America, who have abetted Beijing in its efforts to maintain the status quo on trade - selling out their country in the process.

Drawing attention to something that few political analysts have been willing to discuss since the US-China trade spat erupted early last year, Bass broke down China's lobbying strategy, which we highlighted here.