Trump on Taiwan; PRC suspends arms control talks with US; More chip controls?; WSJ fires Selina Cheng; AI

We should have news from the Plenum in the next few hours.. As usual when there is a big PRC political meeting imminent or underway, rumors start flying about Xi. The one this week is that he has a had stroke, or a bad fall. I have seen no credible sourcing for this rumor and so at this point I remain very skeptical of it.

Summary of today’s top items:

1. Donald Trump on Taiwan and TikTok - On Tuesday night Bloomberg published an interview they did with former President Trump a couple of weeks ago. He is now against a ban on TikTok, and his comments on Taiwan, while echoing things he has said before, have caused some upset. He said “Taiwan should pay us for defense. You know, we’re no different than an insurance company. Taiwan doesn’t give us anything…They took all of our chip business. They’re immensely wealthy. And I don’t think we’re any different from an insurance policy. Why? Why are we doing this?”. These comments, along with the absence of any mention of Taiwan in the RNC platform…