He Said, Xi Said
US and China Calm Down
The meeting this week between President Trump and Xi Jinping, the President of China, resulted in what some are calling a ceasefire.
There is not a deal covering all the issues at contention: fentanyl (China exports many of the chemical precursors to this terrible drug), tariffs, rare earths, agriculture (China stopped its importation of American crops, especially soybeans), port fees, the sale of TikTok to an American company, Chinese imports of American energy, and whether the US will allow Nvidia to sell its GPU chips to China. Lots of issues, but the escalation has stopped and in some cases both sides have pulled back.
Pres. Trump said the meeting rated a 12 our of 10. If you factor in his usual exaggerations, this was a moderately good meeting.
China remains the most significant challenge to American interests and, not to engage in hyperbole myself, to free societies throughout the world. Their influence in many countries, including secret police stations in major cities even here, is far from benign. But they are a terrible force and open conflict is not a welcome prospect.
It is always a fraught question as to how to engage in diplomacy with governments as fundamentally opposed to you as Communist China is. This was a question throughout the Cold War with the Soviet Union. It is especially difficult with a nation as integrated into our economy as China is. Isolating China is not really an option. Nevertheless, as Winston Churchill said, “Jaw, jaw is better than war, war.”