US-China tariffs; Stimulus measures; Food inflation; Huawei's chip advances; Online gaming policy; Education drives real estate; Beijing's Pacific bullying
The next round of US tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports may take effect as soon as Friday and there are no public signs of any near-term deal to forestall the escalation of the trade war.
DC has been consumed over the last day with the revelations of chaos in the Trump Administration from leaks of the new Bob Woodward book Fear: Trump in the White House and the anonymous Op-Ed in the New York Times by a "senior administration official" describing efforts to keep Trump in check.
So far I have only seen summaries of the book and the OpEd in Chinese media, but I am dying to know how the system is briefing Xi on the craziness. I specifically worry about several things:
Will Xi take these revelations as further evidence that there is no way to trust any trade deal Trump may agree to, and so there is little point in offering any significant concessions to try to forestall the escalating trade war?;
Will Xi see even more foreign policy opportunity in the US political chaos, and especia…