More on Xi’s DPRK visit; Inflation; Iran sanctions; "Near-shore governance" model around Taiwan; PRC influencing US AI debates?

Today’s top items:

1. More on Xi’s DPRK visit - Xi’s visit to Pyongyang confirms that the PRC really has given up talking about North Korea denuclearization, and it seems to be gearing up to ignore even more the existing UN sanctions on the DPRK. Given the delegation with Xi and language in the readout like “expand practical cooperation in trade, agriculture, construction, science and technology, health care, and other areas”.

The US and Japan are publicly at least not accepting the nuclearization of North Korea. The readout from the just concluded U.S.-Japan Extended Deterrence Dialogue said this:

Both delegations discussed China’s dramatic and opaque nuclear weapons buildup and rejected Russia’s notion that the DPRK’s pursuit of nuclear weapons was a closed issue. They reaffirmed their commitment to the complete denuclearization of the DPRK.

After the Trump visit to China, the White House fact sheet on the trip said that “President Trump and President Xi confirmed their shared goal to …