US-China AI; Front-loading local government debt; Apple-Alibaba Intelligence

Summary of today’s top items:

1. US-China - The Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that Xi and Trump spoke on January 17th, seemingly quashing the speculation arising from Trump’s recent ambiguous comments that he and Xi had spoken after the January 20th inauguration. Wang Yi will be in New York next week to chair a “Security Council high-level event on February 18 under the theme of ‘Practicing Multilateralism, Reforming and Improving Global Governance.’” Is there any chance he will come to DC meet with either Secretary of State Rubio or national Security Adviser Waltz?

2. Front-loading local government debt - China has issued close to 2.8 trillion RMB in new government debt “ahead of schedule,” according to a tally by the 21st Century Business Herald, based on local government data.

3. Paris AI Summit - In his speech to the summit US Vice President Vance seemed to hint at tightening export controls of advanced semiconductors while criticizing China, but not by name. He said:

We will …