G20; Reports of a trade truce; AMD's back door for China; More support for SMEs

The focus of just about all the coverage so far of the G20 in Osaka is the meeting between President Trump and General Secretary Xi Jinping, scheduled for 11:30 AM Saturday. Trump has a 1:05PM meeting with Turkish President Erdogan, so unless the schedule shifts, or there is an unannounced second session, it looks like Trump and Xi will only have about 90 minutes, maybe enough time for a “truce” but unlikely enough time for any substantive breakthroughs.

There are media reports that the two sides have agreed to a new round of talks while putting a delay on Trump’s threat to add tariffs to the remaining $300B+ in imports from China. As I said Monday that is the probably the best case outcome from this weekend.

Meanwhile, there are few signs from CCP propaganda organs that any concessions will be forthcoming from Xi.

The “staying true to our founding mission” campaign is in full swing. Xi chaired a Politburo study session on the campaign, a new web site was launched for it, so expect cad…