Xi back from Beidaihe; US-China; Hidden debt, infrastructure spending and stimulus; Art theft; Poverty alleviation guideline

For those who missed yesterday’s note on my Beijing trip you can read it here.

Pictures and video of Xi reappeared in official media reports Sunday for the coverage of his chairing of a meeting of the CMC to discuss Party Building in the PLA. So it looks like I do not need to eat this newsletter just yet…

The Washington Post ran a story Saturday about After detente with North Korea, Trump increasingly takes aim at a new foe — China:

From an escalating trade war to a new defense budget that counters Chinese maritime expansion, the Trump administration has taken aim at the East Asian power in a contest of wills that has led to a growing consensus in Beijing that the United States is seeking to contain China’s rise…

Analysts said the rise in hostility suggests that Trump and his advisers have come to view the communist nation as a malign power and direct competitor and adversary whose expanding influence must be blunted through more extreme countermeasures. To a degree, it is a view that is…