“I can’t do my job without News Items.” — Jim Cramer, CNBC.
1. The Wall Street Journal:
President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping emerged from their first face-to-face meeting in six years with a temporary truce in the bruising trade fight between the two superpowers.
Their agreement lowers immediate tensions between the U.S. and China, which have been locked for months in a bitter struggle over trade and technology that has hurt both their economies.
The agreement includes a reduction in stiff U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods in exchange for a pledge by China to crack down on the trade in the chemicals used to produce fentanyl.
China also promised to ease the exports of rare earths—minerals that Western manufacturers rely on to make a range of goods. And Beijing promised to buy “tremendous amounts” of American soybeans, said Trump.
While the detente provides relief to both sides, it does little to address the fundamental divergence between two superpowers whose economies are decoupling in many sectors and who are racing for supremacy in areas such as artificial intelligence.
In comments to reporters on his way back to the U.S. from South Korea, Trump was effusive about the meeting.
“Overall, I guess on the scale of from zero to 10, with 10 being the best, I would say the meeting was a 12,” he said. (Source: wsj.com)
2. As part of the deal, President Xi will work “very hard to stop the flow” of fentanyl, according to President Trump.
Some background: In August 2022, China officially announced that it had suspended all counternarcotics and law enforcement cooperation with the US. Cooperation was restored late in Joe Biden’s presidency. However, even that cooperation has had limits — since 2019 Chinese officials have not notified the US of any convictions related to the fentanyl trade, according to a US embassy official speaking earlier this year who asked not to be named discussing non-public matters. President Trump said his meeting with Xi Jinping had resulted in a deal that included the US halving fentanyl-related tariffs on Chinese imports. The US president expressed optimism that China would take concrete steps to reduce the flow of precursor chemicals used to create fentanyl. (Sources: reuters.com, bloomberg.com)
3. More on the Trump-Xi meeting:
Mr. Trump (said) that the subject of Taiwan—the most dangerous potential flashpoint between the U.S. and China—never came up in his meeting with President Xi. Fears have been percolating in Taiwan that Trump’s dealmaking instincts might lead him to trade away U.S. support against Beijing’s territorial claim to the self-ruled island in exchange for concessions on trade. (Source: wsj.com)
4. Eric Schmidt and Selina Xu:
….These days, it’s the foreigners visiting China who often experience future shock, astonished by the towering skyscrapers, high-speed rail, megabridges, and ubiquitous electric cars, super-apps, and trifold smartphones. China has become an innovation powerhouse. The country now accounts for 70 percent of the world’s granted AI patents, 75 percent of global patent applications in clean-energy technology, 41 percent of granted patents in the life sciences and biotechnology, and more patent applications in fusion technology than any other country. Eight of the world’s top 10 institutions by research output are in China, according to the Nature Index. China is debuting not just pilotless flying taxis but also legions of robots, the Tiangong space station, the world’s largest hydropower project, a leading hypersonic-weapons arsenal, and more. Standing on its streets, as we did on a visit this past July, one can feel the country’s intense desire to leapfrog into the future. (Sources: theatlantic.com, ericschmidt.com, linkedin.com, et alia. Italics mine.)
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