Xi
16 briefs
China Did Not Fight in the Iran War. It May Have Won It Anyway.
The CFR and Times of India both say the same thing: Beijing watched the US burn through stockpiles, studied its weaknesses, and walked into the Trump summit holding a much stronger Taiwan hand than it had before the war started.
Trump Flies to Beijing Saying He Does Not Need Xi's Help -- Which Is How You Ask for Help
The US needs China to pressure Iran. China knows this. Markets put a 16% chance China actually joins Iran negotiations -- and an 88% chance it buys Boeing planes instead.
The Summit Without a Spine
Trump flies to Beijing Tuesday. Both sides want stability. Neither side can say what they actually need from the other.
Trump Flies to Beijing Thinking He Has Leverage. China Disagrees.
China's rare earths card turned the October trade truce into a template Beijing plans to repeat. The May 14 summit will reveal who actually blinks.
Trump Sanctioned China's Oil Supply Chain to Gain Leverage Before the Summit. China Already Priced It In.
Washington's April 24 sanctions targeting Hengli Petrochemical and 40 shipping entities were supposed to be summit leverage. A CounterPunch analysis argues they were actually America's last chip, spent.
The Trump-Xi Summit Is About Iran. China Wants It That Way.
The US-China summit next week was supposed to be about tariffs and rare earths. Iran has displaced both topics. That displacement is not accidental — it is the best outcome China could have engineered.
The Summit That Has to Look Like Nothing
Trump and Xi have more to gain from a deal than from a standoff. The problem is neither can afford to say so.
Taiwan Passed Its Defense Bill. The Opposition Cut It by 40 Percent.
The KMT and TPP forced through NT$780 billion instead of the NT$1.25 trillion the government requested, days before Trump meets Xi in Beijing.
Trump Flies to Beijing With Iran in the Room
The Trump-Xi summit next week is nominally about trade and rare earths. Iran has turned it into a negotiation about who controls the ceasefire.
Trump Goes to Beijing. China Holds the Iran Card.
The first US presidential visit to China in eight years arrives after two months of war in Iran, with Beijing in a position it has rarely occupied: indispensable to both sides.
China Just Ordered Its Companies to Ignore US Sanctions. The Banks Are Next.
Beijing used its blocking law for the first time, telling domestic oil refiners not to comply with Treasury sanctions. The move puts Chinese banks in an impossible position ten days before Trump arrives in Beijing.
Trump Flies to Beijing. China Says Taiwan Is the Price of Admission.
Two weeks before the Trump-Xi summit, China's foreign minister told Rubio that Taiwan is the 'biggest risk' in the relationship — and the US side has not publicly disagreed.
China's New Trade Law Lets It Seize Foreign Assets. Trump Visits in Two Weeks.
Beijing quietly amended its Foreign Trade Law to authorize punishment of companies that reduce their business with China, just as US firms are quietly doing exactly that. The timing is not coincidental.
US and China Trade Barbs Two Weeks Before the Summit. Both Sides Are Building Leverage, Not Trust.
Bessent calls Beijing's new supply chain rules 'provocative' on the same day He Lifeng voices 'solemn concern' over US trade measures. The Trump-Xi meeting is 15 days away.
China Used the Trade Truce to Build a Better Weapon
While Trump called the October summit a '12 out of 10,' Beijing enacted laws to punish supply chain offshoring, tightened rare earth licensing, and banned foreign AI chips from state data centers. The truce is real. The preparation for what comes after it is also real.
The Gulf States Just Watched the US Go to War Next Door. Now They're Reconsidering.
The Iran war exposed a fault line the Gulf states had managed for decades: the US security guarantee requires hosting a war you didn't choose. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are quietly hedging.