China tariff exemptions not a concession; Internet censorship to tighten; Huawei

18 years since the 9/11 attacks.

As I wrote on the anniversary last year, Washington in 2001 increasingly saw China as a competitor. George W Bush referred to China as a "strategic competitor" during the 2000 Presidential campaign, early in 2001 his administration took steps to move closer to Taiwan, and of course the Hainan Island Incident occurred on April 1. But whatever momentum may have been building in DC against China wavered after the 9/11 attacks. 

18 years later we are well into a fundamental, structural change in official US views towards the PRC, though I have yet to see a good articulation of what “victory” would look like, and it is quite possible the shift has come too late for the US to achieve anything like "victory", as the costs are so much higher now that few may be willing to bear them, especially in the absence of a well-articulated strategy and theory of victory.

In spite of the problems China and the Party face, and all the risks and struggles Xi is exhorting the…