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President Trump is on his way to Asia for a three-country trip. On Saturday, he also announced new, punishing tariffs on Canada. Willie James Inman has the details.
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Tag: xi jinping
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As Trump and Xi Get Set to Talk Trade, Asia Worries About Impact on Its Security
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President Trump put the world on notice in his first term that the U.S. was preparing for an era of intensified military and economic competition with Beijing.
But as he left for his first trip to Asia since returning to the White House, striking a new trade deal with Chinese leader Xi Jinping has moved to the top of Trump’s agenda, spurring apprehensions among allies that the dealmaking might come at their expense.
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Trump announces 130% tariffs on China. The global trade war just came roaring back
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(CNN) — President Donald Trump announced he will impose an additional 100% tariff on goods from China, on top of the 30% tariffs already in effect, starting November 1 or sooner. The threat is a massive escalation after months of a trade truce between the two nations.
“The United States of America will impose a Tariff of 100% on China, over and above any Tariff that they are currently paying,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social Friday afternoon. “Also on November 1st, we will impose Export Controls on any and all critical software.”
Trump’s announcement is tied to Beijing ramping up export controls on its critical rare earths, which are needed to produce many electronics. As a result, Trump appeared to call off a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping that was scheduled for later this month in South Korea.
Trump’s initial message Friday, delivered via a Truth Social post, in which he threatened “massive” new tariffs, was ill received by investors on Friday as fears of a spring déjà vu, when tariffs on Chinese goods soared to a stunning 145%, set in. Markets closed sharply lower on Friday after Trump’s initial comments, with the Dow falling by 878 points, or 1.9%. The S&P 500 was down 2.7%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq tumbled 3.5%.
While Trump doesn’t always act on his threats, investors, consumers and businesses still have reason to worry.
President Donald Trump is threatening to raise tariffs on Chinese goods shipped to the United States. Credit: Jessica Koscielniak / Reuters via CNN Newsource The two largest economies depend on each other
The United States and China are the world’s two largest economies. Although Mexico has recently replaced China as the top source of foreign goods shipped to the United States, America depends on China for hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of goods. Meanwhile, China is one of the top export markets for America.
In particular, electronics, apparel and furniture are among the top goods the United States receives from China. Trump has pushed CEOs, especially in tech, to move production to the United States, but he’s softened his approach in recent months as business leaders have satisfied the president with announcements of hundreds of billions of dollars in investments in US manufacturing — even if they continue to make the bulk of their products overseas.
Shortly after imposing minimum 145% tariffs on Chinese goods — an effective embargo on trade, Trump issued an exemption for electronics, making them subject to 20% tariffs instead. The move was, in many ways, an acknowledgment that the Trump administration understood the pain he was inflicting on the US economy through his sky-high tariffs.
Then, in May, US and Chinese officials further established the interdependence of trade by agreeing to lower tariffs on one another. China brought levies on American exports down to 10% from 125%, and the United States brought rates down to 30% from 145%.
Both countries’ stock markets rallied as a result.
It was only a matter of time
Trump on Friday claimed trade hostility from China “came out of nowhere.” But in reality, it’s been bubbling up for months.
For the United States, a critical part of trade agreements has been to ensure China will increase its supply of rare earth magnets. Yet despite several apparent breakthroughs, Trump has in recent months repeatedly accused China of violating the terms.
Trump first responded by putting restrictions on sales of American technologies to China, including a key Nvidia AI chip. Many of these restrictions were later lifted.
Then came the Trump administration’s announcement that it would soon impose fees on goods transported on Chinese-owned or -operated ships. China countered with a similar plan on American ships that took effect Friday.
In short: Trump has already demonstrated there’s no limit to how high he’ll go with tariffs on China, and Xi has shown no mercy in how he chooses to retaliate.
But Trump’s ability to continue to impose tariffs on a whim could soon end, pending the verdict in a landmark case kicking off in the Supreme Court next month. Xi, however, faces no such constraints.
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Elisabeth Buchwald and CNN
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China imposes retaliatory port fees on American-owned ships docking in country
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China has hit U.S.-owned vessels docking in the country with tit-for-tat port fees, in response to the American government’s planned port fees on Chinese ships, expanding a string of retaliatory measures before trade talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Vessels owned or operated by American companies or individuals, and ships built in the U.S. or flying the American flag, would be subjected to a 400 yuan ($56) per net ton fee per voyage if they dock in China, China’s Ministry of Transport said on Friday.
The fees would be applied on the same ship for a maximum of five voyages each year, and would rise every year until 2028, when it would hike to 1,120 yuan ($157) per net ton, the ministry said. They would take effect on Oct. 14, the same day when the United States is due to start imposing port fees on Chinese vessels.
China’s Ministry of Transport said on Friday in a statement that its special fees on American vessels are “countermeasures” in response to “wrongful” U.S. practices, referring to the planned U.S. port fees on Chinese vessels.
The ministry also slammed the United States’ port fees as “discriminatory” that would “severely damage the legitimate interests of China’s shipping industry” and “seriously undermine” international economic and trade order.
China has announced a string of trade measures and restrictions before an expected meeting between Trump and Xi on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in South Korea that begins at the end of October. On Thursday, Beijing unveiled new curbs on exports of rare earths and related technologies, as well as new restrictions on the export of some lithium battery and related production equipment.
The port fees announced by Beijing on Friday mirrors many aspects of the U.S. port fees on Chinese ships docking in American ports. Under Washington’s plans, Chinese-owned or -operated ships will be charged $50 per net ton for each voyage to the U.S., which would then rise by $30 per net ton each year until 2028. Each vessel would be charged no more than five times per year.
China’s new port fee is “not just a symbolic move,” said Kun Cao, deputy chief executive at consulting firm Reddal. “It explicitly targets any ship with meaningful U.S. links — ownership, operation, flag, or build — and scales steeply with ship size.”
The “real bite is on U.S.-owned and operated vessels,” he said, adding that North America accounts for roughly 5% of the world fleet by beneficial ownership, which is still a meaningful figure although not as huge as compared to Greek, Chinese and Japanese ship owners.
However, the United States has only about 0.1% of global commercial shipbuilding market share in recent years and built fewer than 10 commercial ships last year, Reddal added.
While shipping analysts have said that the U.S. port fees on Chinese vessels would likely have limited impact on trade and freight rates as some shipping companies have been redeploying their fleets to avoid the extra charge, shipping data provider Alphaliner warned last month in a report that the U.S. port fees could still cost up to $3.2 billion next year for the world’s top 10 carriers.
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This story has been corrected to show that the Alphaliner report was from last month, not this month.
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Trump considers massive bailout of at least $10 billion for American farmers hurt by his trade war
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Washington (CNN) — American farmers are having a tough year, in no small part because of President Donald Trump’s trade war. Now, the White House is gearing up to extend them a multi-billion-dollar bailout, sources tell CNN.
Surging costs and foreign retaliation from tariffs have hurt the US agriculture industry — as have immigration-related labor shortages and plummeting commodity prices. Farm production expenses are estimated to reach $467.4 billion in 2025, according to the Agriculture Department, up $12 billion from last year.
Farm bankruptcies rose in the first half of the year to the highest level since 2021, according to US courts data.
Trump’s policies have exacerbated those woes, from the deportation of the industry’s key migrant workforce to renewed trade tensions between the United States and China. And for traditional American crops, such as soybeans, the situation has grown particularly precarious.
“There’s no doubt that the farm economy is in a significant challenge right now, especially our row croppers,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told reporters Tuesday. “So not just soybeans, although I think they’re probably the top of the list, but corn, wheat, sorghum, cotton, et cetera.”
Indeed, the US soybean industry has become the poster child of the farm economy’s plight in the first year of Trump’s second term. The president recognizes these problems, White House officials tells CNN, and has increased pressure on his administration to address them urgently.
Over the past few weeks, the White House has held a series of interagency meetings with the Departments of Agriculture and Treasury as they attempt to finalize a relief package for US farmers, the sources said. Discussions over the best way to aid the agriculture industry are ongoing, the officials said, but they have zeroed in on two options.
“There are a lot of levers we can use to help ease the pain they are feeling,” one of the officials told CNN. One idea, floated publicly by Trump as recently as Wednesday, is to give farmers a percentage of the income the United States is receiving from the administration’s tariffs on goods being imported into the country.
“We’ve made so much money on Tariffs, that we are going to take a small portion of that money, and help our Farmers. I WILL NEVER LET OUR FARMERS DOWN!” Trump wrote on social media this week. The other is tapping into a “slush fund,” as the officials described it, at the Department of Agriculture.
The Trump administration also dipped into the fund, known as Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP), in March to similarly provide assistance to farmers. USDA at the time issued $10 billion in direct payments to eligible agricultural producers of eligible commodities for the 2024 crop year.
The administration has also discussed implementing a combination of the two, depending on where they can most quickly pull the funds from, one White House official said. The current range of aid they are looking to offer ranges from $10 billion to $14 billion.
“The final figure will depend on how much farmers need and the amount of tariff revenue coming in,” the official told CNN.
Trump himself as privately been applying pressure on his team to ensure that American farmers, many of whom the Trump administration credit for helping the president win the November 2024 election, are protected. But the other reason they are making the agriculture industry such a priority, officials say, is because the Trump administration views protecting farmers as a national security issue.
“We need to grow our own food. We can’t rely on imports from other countries, that poses a problem for national security. And right now, the government is subsidizing a lot of that process,” one Trump administration official argued.
US soybean industry in crisis
An issue complicating the Trump administration’s goals revolve around soybeans — America’s largest agricultural export, valued at more than $24 billion in 2024, according to USDA data.
Last year, about half of those exports went to China, but since May, that’s dropped down to zero as a result of an effective embargo China has placed on US soybeans in retaliation for Trump’s tariffs on the country. China has implemented 20% tariffs on US soybeans, making the crop from other countries significantly more attractive.
That couldn’t come at worse time for soybean farmers, with the harvest season in full swing and some farms reporting strong yields. And their luck might not change anytime soon, with Beijing ramping up its reliance on South America — inadvertently aided the US Treasury’s financial lifeline provided to Argentina in recent weeks.
A combine harvester during a soybean harvest at a farm outside St. Peter, Minnesota. Credit: Ben Brewer/Bloomberg / Getty Images via CNN Newsource Last week, the Trump administration said it would arrange a $20 billion lifeline to Argentina’s central bank, which would exchange US dollars for pesos to help stabilize Argentina’s financial market. Argentina also temporarily scrapped export taxes on grains to help stabilize the peso, but China didn’t waste any time.
Beijing purchased “at least 10 cargoes of Argentine soybeans,” according to a report from Reuters. Brazil has also helped meet China’s demand for soybeans, with both countries announcing a pact in July to deepen agricultural trade ties.
As a result, America’s hobbled soybean industry is calling on the Trump administration to finish its trade negotiations with China.
“US soybean farmers have been clear for months: the administration needs to secure a trade deal with China. China is the world’s largest soybean customer and typically our top export market,” American Soybean Association President Caleb Ragland said last week in a statement.
Pressure on Trump
Many farmers say time is of the essence as they start to bring in this year’s crop.
“We’re always hopeful that those negotiations are moving forward, but yet with harvest here, patience may be running thin,” one Indiana farmer told CNN, describing the industry’s many challenges, which also include the deportation of key workers.
Trump has heard the calls for action.
On Wednesday, Trump blamed China for the pain soybean farmers are facing, arguing Beijing is refusing to buy soybeans for negotiating purposes amid the two countries’ tariff dispute. He added that he plans to make soybeans “a major topic of discussion” when he meets face-to-face with China’s President Xi Jinping in South Korea next month.
Part of the reason Trump has given the issue so much attention, White House officials say, is because Rollins has forced the issue with not only the president, but also one of his closest advisers: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
On Tuesday, a photo of Bessent’s phone captured by the Associated Press went viral, showing a text from a contact named “BR,” presumed to be Rollins. Her messages illustrated panic within the Trump administration over the soybean industry’s woes, which worsened over the Argentina ordeal.
During this “time of uncertainty” for farmers and ranchers, Rollins said that she is in “constant communication” with the White House and partners across the government. Rollins also called Trump’s idea of temporarily giving tariff revenue to farmers “a very elegant solution.”
“To this moment of uncertainty, the ability to offset any payments to the farmers through potential tariff revenue is really where the president wants us to head, and that’s what we’re looking at,” she added.
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Alayna Treene, Bryan Mena and CNN
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Las Vegas Sands Among Businesses That Met With China Premier
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Posted on: September 27, 2025, 03:08h.
Last updated on: September 27, 2025, 03:09h.
- Las Vegas Sands CEO Rob Goldstein met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang
- The Chinese leader expressed enthusiasm for strengthening his country’s relationship with the US
- Sands operates five casinos in China’s Macau
Robert Goldstein, the chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands, who assumed the roles in January 2021 following the death of his longtime boss and mentor, Sheldon Adelson, was among the American business leaders who met last week with Chinese Premier Li Qiang.
The Venetian on the Cotai Strip in Macau, owned by Las Vegas Sands, is seen. Sands’ top executive, Robert Goldstein, met recently with Chinese Premier Li Qiang. (Image: Shutterstock) For decades, Goldstein was Adelson’s right-hand man. Adelson, the founder and longtime chair and CEO of Sands, was responsible for overhauling China’s Macau into the world’s richest gaming hub by developing the ultra-luxurious Cotai Strip.
During his trip to the US to attend a meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York, Li, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s right-hand man, who is the second most important leader in China, met with several executives from major American companies that do business with China, with LVS among them.
Las Vegas-based Sands no longer has any resorts in Las Vegas or anywhere else in the US. The firm instead relies primarily on Macau, along with its Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.
Chinese Meeting
Goldstein was one of at least eight business leaders who met privately with Li in New York on Thursday after the UN gathering. Goldstein’s attendance was first reported by Bloomberg.
Looking forward, China and the US need to find the right way to get along in this new era,” Li said at the event hosted by the National Committee on US-China Relations, according to a readout posted by the Chinese government. “Economic and trade relations are an important part of our bilateral relationship.”
Li said that the world’s two largest economies “can and should become friends and partners.”
Those are welcome comments for Sands, which owns and operates five integrated resort casino properties in China — The Venetian, Sands, The Londoner, The Plaza & Four Seasons Hotel, and The Parisian. In 2024, Sands’ Macau operations generated net revenue of more than $7.1 billion for the company.
President Donald Trump’s tariff war and ongoing threats to the Chinese economy have caused some concern among the three US-based gaming operators invested in Macau that they could be targeted for retaliation. Along with Sands, MGM Resorts and Wynn Resorts own casinos in Macau.
Li’s comments, however, suggest the Chinese Communist Party is seeking to strengthen its US relationship.
Regardless of changes in the external environment, China will make every possible effort to ensure greater certainty for the growth of foreign companies,” Li added.
The premier said the Pacific Ocean is “wide enough” to accommodate a strong bilateral relationship between the US and China, but also additional countries. Li urged both sides and parties to “strengthen cooperation.”
Li Power
Along with Goldstein and Sands, Li reportedly invited leaders from BlackRock, Citadel Securities, Visa, FedEx, Estee Lauder, and Amphenol.
As premier, a position he’s held since March 2023, Li has been considered pro-business. The premier is the head of the People’s Republic of China government and leads the State Council.
Goldstein plans to step down next year. He’s set to be replaced by Sands President and COO Patrick Dumont, the son-in-law of Sands’ largest shareholder, Dr. Miriam Adelson, the widow of the late Sheldon Adelson.
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Devin O’Connor
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President Trump says Charlie Kirk approved of TikTok amid China divestment deal
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NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
President Donald Trump on Friday credited the late Charlie Kirk while announcing a deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping to keep TikTok available in the U.S.
Speaking with reporters in the Oval Office on Friday, Trump shared that he had a successful phone call with Jinping on Friday morning in which he reached a deal to keep the social media platform available to American users by divesting some of its ownership to U.S. business leaders.
He said that Chinese leaders, American youth and even conservative leaders wanted to keep the platform available in the U.S.
“The TikTok deal is well on its way,” he said.
CHARLIE KIRK CREDITED WITH HELPING TRUMP GAIN SIGNIFICANT GROUND WITH YOUNG VOTERS
A split photo of President Donald Trump on Sunday, Sept. 14, and the late Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, Sept. 10, moments before his assassination. ((L) Francis Chung via Getty Images, (R) Tess Crowley via AP)
He noted the platform’s popularity among American youth and emphasized that Kirk encouraged its use to engage with young people.
“Charlie was very much in favor of TikTok; he liked TikTok,” he added. “He said, you know, ‘you should use it.’”
Trump credited Kirk for leveraging social media platforms like TikTok to get “massive numbers of youth” out to vote for him and Republicans in 2024.
“If you take a look at my numbers, no Republican has ever done anything like it. We got massive numbers of youth, and by the way, helped very much by Charlie Kirk,” he said, adding, “It probably had a pretty big effect on the election because we won the election by a lot.”
TPUSA INSIDER: ERIKA KIRK IS ‘ABSOLUTE FORCE’ READY TO GROW GROUP ’10X’ AFTER TRAGEDY
President Donald Trump during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, Aug. 26, 2025. (Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
This comes as Trump has repeatedly delayed implementing a law passed by Congress in 2024 to ban TikTok in the U.S. unless it divests its ownership of U.S. operations from China to America.
Following his negotiations with Jinping, Trump said TikTok’s U.S. operations will be “controlled by very powerful and very substantial American people, all American.”
“It’s a great deal for our country. It’s a great deal for all of the young people in the country and for people generally,” he said.
Trump acknowledged his initial opposition to TikTok, saying, “I wasn’t a fan of TikTok, and then I got to use it, and I became a fan, and it helped me win the election in a landslide.”
WHITE HOUSE RELEASES VIDEO TRIBUTE TO CHARLIE KIRK
Trump said he wasn’t initially a fan of TikTok, but later credited the platform for helping him win the 2024 election. (Getty Images)
“I had a great call with President Xi and, as you know, we approved the TikTok deal, and we’re in the process. We have some great investors, some of the biggest in the world, American investors, great people, and we look forward to getting that deal closed,” he said.
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Pressed on whether the deal is fully approved, Trump answered, “I think so. And when you say fully approved, I don’t know what that means, we have to get it signed, I guess. I guess it could be a formality. I found his word to be very good.”
“They wanted to see it,” he said of China, “and I can tell you, the young people in our country wanted to see it stay open very badly.”
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Putin and China’s Xi heard on hot mic discussing life-prolonging organ transplants and immortality
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China’s President Xi Jinping and his visiting Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin discussed life-prolonging organ transplants and immortality as they chatted before a massive military parade in Beijing on Wednesday, in comments picked up by state media microphones.
Historic images showed Xi shaking hands and speaking with Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as they walked down a red carpet by Tiananmen Square, in scenes viewed as a challenge to President Trump and the U.S.-led global order that has prevailed for more than a century.
“These days… 70 years old,” Xi mused in Mandarin as he walked beside Putin and Kim, according to video aired by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV. Xi’s translator conveyed the remarks to Putin, who is then heard in Russian quoting a line from a Tang dynasty poem: “In the past, it used to be rare for someone to be older than 70 and these days they say that at 70 one’s still a child.”
Cheng Xin/Getty
Putin then turned toward Xi, speaking while gesturing with his hands, though his words are inaudible on the CCTV feed. The same Chinese translator then relays Putin’s remarks to Xi.
“With the… development of biotechnology, human organs can be continuously transplanted, people could get younger as they grow older, and may even become immortal,” Putin said, according to the translator.
Xi then spoke again in Mandarin as the camera cut away: “Predictions are, in this century, it may be… possible to live to 150 years old.”
Putin confirmed the exchange during a news conference later Wednesday.
“Ah, I think it was when we were going to the parade that the chairman spoke about this,” he told reporters, referring to Xi.
“Modern means — both health improvement and medical means, and then even all kinds of surgical ones related to organ replacement — allow humanity to hope that active life will continue not as it does today,” Putin added.
China and Russia’s “no limits partnership”
Xi and Putin, along with Kim and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have been dubbed an “Axis of Upheaval” by some Western analysts, and Xi’s decision to bring together the leaders of some of the most heavily sanctioned nations in the world this week was clearly calculated.
The parade was the first time Kim had ever appeared together with both Xi and Putin — providing him a first multilateral diplomatic event.
Xi and Putin have made their ambition to shake up the global status quo clear for several years.
“We, together with you and with our sympathizers, will move towards a multipolar, just, democratic world order,” Russia’s longtime Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in 2022, ahead of a meeting with his Chinese counterpart.
EVGENIA NOVOZHENINA/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
China and Russia have declared a “no limits partnership,” and neither Xi nor Putin, who are both 72, has ever expressed any intention of stepping down from their respective roles at the helm of their nations.
While Xi’s predecessors Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao relinquished power after 10 years in office, he abolished term limits in 2018 and, in 2023, was handed a third term as Chinese president.
Putin was elected to a record fifth six-year term just last year in Russia. Critics dismissed the vote as a patently undemocratic farse, as virtually all of Putin’s serious political opponents were barred from running, and many of them were jailed.
Putin has twice used his leverage as Russia’s autocratic leader to amend the constitution so that he can theoretically stay in power until he’s in his mid-80s. He already is the longest-serving Kremlin leader since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
China, meanwhile, has historically had one of the lowest rates of organ donation in the world, with a severe shortage of organ donors and a long-standing black-market organ trade. In 2016, about four years into Xi’s tenure as leader, surgeons from the World Health Organization gathered in Beijing to try to allay skepticism about whether Chinese hospitals had, as claimed, stopped performing transplants with the organs of executed prisoners.
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China hosted its “biggest” military parade for “Victory Day” on Wednesday. Here’s what to know.
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China hosted what it says was its “biggest” military parade for “Victory Day” on Wednesday, showcasing the country’s growing military power while commemorating Japan’s surrender at the end of World War II.
More than two dozen world leaders were expected to attend the parade as China displayed some of its newest and most advanced weapons. Rehearsals had been underway for weeks, and security in the sprawling Chinese capital of Beijing has been extra tight.
Here’s what to know about China’s military parade.
When is China’s military parade?
The parade took place on Wednesday, Sept. 3, starting at 9 a.m. local time, according to state news agency Xinhua. The parade was held in central Beijing in Tiananmen Square, proceeding down Chang’an Avenue, which translates to “Eternal Peace.”
Who is attending China’s military parade?
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are among the dignitaries who attended the parade. It was the first time Kim, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Putin appeared together. The trio has been dubbed an “Axis of Upheaval” by some Western analysts.
Sergei Bobylev / AP
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and the leader of Myanmar’s ruling military junta, President Min Aung Hlaing, were also expected to attend, according to China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In total, the parade was expected to be attended by 26 different foreign leaders and an estimated 50,000 spectators.
Why is the parade being held and what will it feature?
“Victory Day” marks the 80th anniversary of Imperial Japan’s surrender at the close of World War II. In 2014, China set Sept. 3 as Victory Day.
The parade was Xi’s third military parade since coming to power in 2012.
The 70-minute parade displayed China’s growing military might and newest hardware, including hypersonic weapons, nuclear-capable missiles, fighter jets and underwater drones. According to The Associated Press, in a speech, Xi said humanity today must choose between peace and war and between dialogue and confrontation.
How did President Trump respond?
In a post to Truth Social on Tuesday evening, President Trump noted that the U.S. and China were allies against Japan during WWII, writing that the “big question to be answered is whether or not President Xi of China will mention the massive amount of support and ‘blood’ that The United States of America gave to China in order to help it to secure its FREEDOM from a very unfriendly foreign invader.”
Mr. Trump went on: “May President Xi and the wonderful people of China have a great and lasting day of celebration. Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against The United States of America.”
contributed to this report.
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Historian Miles Yu on Chinese military parade:
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Miles Yu, professor of East Asia, military and naval history at the United States Naval Academy, joins CBS News to share his thoughts on the massive military parade taking place in China.
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Putin and Xi sign around 20 agreements in show of unity
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Russian President Vladimir Putin signed some 20 deals with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on a visit to Beijing on Tuesday that highlighted the two countries’ strong bilateral relations, according to reporting by Chinese news agency Xinhua.
Among them was a legally binding memorandum for the construction of a new gas pipeline through Mongolia to China, announced by Gazprom chief Alexei Miller in Beijing and reported by Russian news agencies.
Miller announced the agreement after a meeting between Putin, Xi and Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh.
The price of gas supplied via the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline would be lower than for Europe, Miller noted, pointing to reduced transport costs.
Gazprom and the China National Petroleum Corporation also signed documents to boost gas deliveries through the existing Power of Siberia pipeline from 38 billion cubic metres per year to 44 billion cubic metres, according to the reports.
The 6,700-kilometre-long Power of Siberia 2 pipeline, including 2,700 kilometres on Russian soil, is due to have a capacity of 50 billion cubic metres per year. The contract is set for 30 years, according to the Russian reports.
Miller described the pipeline as the “largest, most extensive and capital-intensive gas project worldwide,” without giving details on the costs, which are estimated at tens of billions of dollars.
The timeline for the construction of the new pipeline remains unclear. Negotiations on the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline have been ongoing for five years, with Moscow and Beijing unable to agree on the price.
Visa-free travel trial for Russians
Beijing and Moscow also agreed to a trial of visa-free travel for Russians with valid passports to China, Russia’s official TASS news agency reported.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry official told TASS that the new regulation, which applies to stays of up to 30 days, will be in effect for a trial period of one year.
Current rules permit Russians with diplomatic or official documentation to travel to China, and there is a bilateral agreement on visa-free group trips.
The new regulation is to take effect on September 15.
The leaders also signed other cooperation agreements in fields such as energy, aviation, artificial intelligence and agriculture.
Visit sends signal to the West
The two leaders were at pains to highlight their countries’ strong relations, which Putin described as being at an “unprecedentedly high level.”
Xi said their ties had withstood the test of international change and could be further expanded, Xinhua reported.
Putin, along with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, is due to attend a large-scale military parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Beijing on Wednesday.
In a similar show of support, Xi attended a Russian parade in Moscow marking the end of World War II in May.
China is considered Russia’s most significant backer in the Ukraine war, since Beijing has not condemned Moscow’s actions and has put forward Russian demands in its own proposals for resolving the conflict.
However, no details emerged on what Xi and Putin said about Russia’s war on Ukraine. Information from Beijing indicated that the two leaders discussed “regional issues of common interest.”
Western countries accuse China of supplying Russia with goods that can be used for military purposes, thereby supporting the Russian arms industry.
On Monday, Xi and Putin called for a new world order at the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The Russia-friendly SCO is seen as a counterbalance to Western alliances, including NATO.
Putin stated that the eurocentric and Euro-Atlantic model had become obsolete.
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Putin and Kim Jong Un join Xi Jinping for parade to showcase China’s power, and a growing anti-U.S. union
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Beijing — China will host its biggest military parade ever on Wednesday, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and Japan’s formal surrender. The massive procession will go down Chang-an Avenue, the name of which means “Eternal Peace.”
Joining Chinese Prime Minister Xi Jinping for the “Victory Day” event — which will showcase some of China’s newest and most advanced weapons — will be Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
Rehearsals have been underway for weeks, and security in the sprawling Chinese capital has been extra tight. All buildings overlooking the parade route will be locked down as the leaders and other dignitaries from 26 countries take in the spectacle, along with some 50,000 spectators.
For China’s 72-year-old leader Xi, it will be a landmark moment. It’s the third and most important military parade he will have overseen since coming to power in 2012. As commander-in-chief of the world’s largest standing armed forces, he will watch as tens of thousands of troops under his orders march toward Tiananmen Square in central Beijing.
Tingshu Wang/REUTERS
It will be a visceral display not only of China’s growing military might and newest hardware, including hypersonic weapons, nuclear capable missiles, fighter jets and underwater drones, but of its growing clout as a geopolitical power, with deepening ties to some of the United States’ most potent adversaries.
North Korea’s Kim arrived in Beijing Tuesday aboard his green armored train, stopping to inspect one of his own country’s missile production facilities on the way before crossing into China.
The parade will be the first time that Kim appears together with both Xi and Putin — offering him a first multilateral diplomatic event.
Go Nakamura/REUTERS
The symbolism of the three leaders together on a stage with Xi’s military thundering past in formation will be undeniable. Xi is expected to be flanked by Putin and Kim. Together, they have been dubbed an “Axis of Upheaval” by some Western analysts.
Xi is bringing together the leaders of some of the most heavily sanctioned nations in the world. Iran‘s President Masoud Pezeshkian and the leader of Myanmar’s ruling military junta, President Min Aung Hlaing will also be attending, according to China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
It is a clear show of solidarity against the West, and it’s being seen as a direct challenge to the U.S.-led world order that has prevailed for a century. Xi and Putin have made their ambition to shake up that status quo clear for at least several years.
Sputnik/Alexander Kazakov/Pool/REUTERS
“We, together with you and with our sympathizers, will move towards a multipolar, just, democratic world order,” Russia’s longtime Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in 2022, ahead of a meeting with his Chinese counterpart.
The gathering in Beijing will make represent a clear challenge to President Trump’s claim to be fostering close working relationships with Xi, Putin and Kim. Xi’s bond with Putin was on clear and deliberate display in the days leading up to the parade.
China and Russia have declared their “no limits partnership,” and while China claims to maintain a neutral stance on Russia’s war in Ukraine, Beijing’s support of the war effort — by providing dual-use technology and continuing to purchase Russian oil and gas in defiance of Western sanctions, has proven to be an economic lifeline funding Putin’s three and a half year war.
During talks at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on Tuesday, Putin hailed “unprecedentedly high relations” with China and thanked his “dear friend” Xi for the warm welcome.
Kim’s support for Russia’s war has been even more direct. Since October last year, North Korea has sent around 13,000 troops, along with conventional weapons, to support Russia’s war effort. South Korea’s intelligence services estimate that around 2,000 North Korean troops have been killed fighting alongside Russian forces.
GAVRIIL GRIGOROV/POOL/AFP/Getty
The parade will be a show of both China and Russia’s implicit support for Kim’s nuclear weapons program, which remains the subject of numerous United Nations sanctions.
Xi burnished his credentials as a geopolitical powerbroker at a regional security summit in Tianjin, northern China, that ended on Monday. He hosted more than 20 world leaders there, including Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“We should uphold fairness and justice,” Xi declared at the gathering of the Shanghai Corporation Organization, seemingly trying to claim moral high ground amid the upheaval and strained relationships caused by President Trump’s global trade war and isolationist policies. “We must oppose the Cold War mentality, block confrontation and bullying practices.”
Without mentioning the U.S. or its president by name, Xi told the assembled leaders of non-Western countries: “We must continue to take a clear stand against hegemonism and power politics.”
Suo Takekuma/Pool/Getty
On Monday Xi, Putin and Modi were shown together smiling and laughing at the summit — a deliberate public display of warmth and camaraderie. Just last week, the U.S. imposed 50% tariffs on India for buying Russian oil.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a close ally of Mr. Trump, called the summit “performative” and accused China and India of being “bad actors” for fueling Russia’s war.
At the parade this week, Xi is not only asserting China as a reliable and stable partner, but also showing off his country’s burgeoning alliances, influence and its military might and power. It is a message that many will see as being aimed squarely, if not entirely, at China’s rival across the Pacific.
contributed to this report.
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Senior U.S. Senator visits Taiwan, calls it
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Taipei — The head of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee said Friday he was determined the United States and Taiwan remain “the best of friends,” calling the democratic island claimed by China a “free country,” as he visited with another American lawmaker.
Republican Senators Roger Wicker and Deb Fischer arrived in Taipei on Friday for a two-day visit, as President Trump seeks to strike a trade deal with China — which insists Taiwan is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to annex it.
China’s Foreign Ministry reiterated its long-time stance in a statement issued Friday as the American senators arrived in Taipei, saying it firmly opposed any official exchanges between the U.S. and Taiwan.
“We come here from the United States bringing a message from the Congress of commitment, of long-term friendship and a determination that a free country like Taiwan absolutely has the right to remain free and preserve self-determination,” Wicker said during a news conference alongside Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te at the presidential office, as shown in video published by the Reuters news agency.
Reuters
China’s Foreign Ministry responded to a CBS News request for reaction to the language used by Wicker to describe Taiwan over the weekend, with a statement saying the senators’ visit to Taiwan “and the dissemination of erroneous remarks on Taiwan issues violate the one-China principle and the U.S.-China joint communiqués, undermine China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and send wrong signals to Taiwan independence forces.”
The ministry statement voiced China’s “strong dissatisfaction” with the visit and the comments by Wicker, and said the “future of Taiwan must be decided by the 1.4 billion Chinese people, including the people of Taiwan. China will be reunified, and it must be reunified. This is an irreversible trend that no one or any organization can reverse.”
Even before Wicker spoke in Taipei, ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun called the U.S. delegation’s visit “a serious violation” of the one-China principle, a U.S. policy adopted decades ago that recognizes Taiwan as part of China.
A senior Trump administration official told CBS News on Friday that the White House’s stance on the one-China principle “remains the same as the first Trump Administration.”
Wicker, who chairs the powerful Armed Services Committee and is a vocal supporter of Taiwan, said he and Fischer were visiting to better understand Taiwan’s needs, and they wanted to reiterate to Taiwan “our determination to remain the best of friends and to defend the freedom of everyone and both of our great countries.”
Getty/iStock
“It is our determination and our intention that Taiwan remain free and make its own decisions,” Wicker said after their talks with Lai. “Part of maintaining the freedoms that we have is enhanced cooperation militarily, enhanced cooperation with our defense industrial base, making the best use of those funds.”
Since Mr. Trump returned to the White House in January, there have been growing jitters in Taipei over the strength of the Taiwan-U.S. relationship and Washington’s willingness to defend the island if China were to attack.
Fischer said the U.S. Senate understands “the gravity of the challenges that Taiwan faces” and that a “stronger Taiwan means a stronger United States and vice versa.”
While the U.S. stopped recognizing Taiwan as an independent state in the late 1970s, in favor of China, Washington has remained Taipei’s most important backer and biggest supplier of arms that it would need to defend itself from any theoretical attack by China.
Reuters/CCTV
That support has become increasingly crucial to Taiwan in recent years, as China’s President Xi Jinping has vowed to bring the island under Beijing’s control. China has increased military pressure with large-scale exercises and routine flights and naval excursions that test the democratic island’s air and sea boundaries.
Ahead of the meeting with Wicker and Fischer, Lai said he hoped Taiwan and the U.S. would further “enhance cooperation,” and insisted the island and China were “not subordinate” to each other.
Wicker and Fischer have been travelling in the Asia-Pacific region for the past week, stopping in Hawaii, Guam, Palau and the Philippines.
U.S.-Taiwan ties have been strained since Mr. Trump took office and launched a global trade war and pressured governments in Europe and elsewhere to spend more on their own defense.
The Trump administration reportedly denied permission for Lai to transit in New York as part of a planned official trip to Latin America this month after Beijing objected. Lai reportedly then cancelled the trip.
Taiwan is also struggling to finalize a tariff deal with the U.S. after Washington imposed a temporary 20% levy that has alarmed the export-dependent island’s manufacturers.
As those negotiations continue, Lai’s government has announced plans to increase defense spending to more than 3% of GDP next year and to 5% by 2030.
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China’s Xi calls on SCO members to ‘seek common ground’
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China on Monday called for greater unity among the members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), which include Russia, India, Iran and other non-NATO alligned countries.
“We should seek common ground while putting differences aside,” President Xi Jinping said at a summit in the Chinese port city of Tianjin.
Xi also warned against a Cold War mentality and bloc confrontation.
The Chinese president stressed that the SCO should take responsibility for ensuring peace, stability, development and prosperity across the region.
He highlighted the organization’s achievements, including counter-terrorism cooperation and industrial investment, saying that the SCO’s members together generate an annual economic output of nearly $30 trillion.
Founded 24 years ago to promote security cooperation and economic ties, the SCO now has 10 member states: China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India, Pakistan, Iran (since 2023) and Belarus (since 2024).
While the organization positions itself as a counterbalance to Western alliances, it has often struggled to present a united front on recent global conflicts and disputes.
China and India, for instance, have long disputed territories along their shared border, while India and Pakistan clashed in May following a terrorist attack.
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US and China extend trade truce another 90 days, easing tension between world’s largest economies
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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump extended a trade truce with China for another 90 days Monday, at least delaying once again a dangerous showdown between the world’s two biggest economies.
Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he signed the executive order for the extension, and that “all other elements of the Agreement will remain the same.” Beijing at the same time also announced the extension of the tariff pause, according to the Ministry of Commerce.
The previous deadline was set to expire at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. Had that happened the U.S. could have ratcheted up taxes on Chinese imports from an already high 30%, and Beijing could have responded by raising retaliatory levies on U.S. exports to China.
The pause buys time for the two countries to work out some of their differences, perhaps clearing the way for a summit later this year between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, and it has been welcomed by the U.S. companies doing business with China.
Sean Stein, president of the U.S.-China Business Council, said the extension is “critical” to give the two governments time to negotiate a trade agreement that U.S. businesses hope would improve their market access in China and provide the certainty needed for companies to make medium- and long-term plans.
“Securing an agreement on fentanyl that leads to a reduction in U.S. tariffs and a rollback of China’s retaliatory measures is acutely needed to restart U.S. agriculture and energy exports,” Stein said.
China said Tuesday it would extend relief to American companies who were placed on an export control list and an unreliable entities list. After Trump initially announced tariffs in April, China restricted exports of dual-use goods to some American companies, while banning others from trading or investing in China. The Ministry of Commerce said it would stop those restrictions for some companies, while giving others another 90-day extension.
Reaching a pact with China remains unfinished business for Trump, who has already upended the global trading system by slapping double-digit taxes – tariffs – on almost every country on earth.
The European Union, Japan and other trading partners agreed to lopsided trade deals with Trump, accepting once unthinkably U.S. high tariffs (15% on Japanese and EU imports, for instance) to ward off something worse.
Trump’s trade policies have turned the United States from one of the most open economies in the world into a protectionist fortress. The average U.S. tariff has gone from around 2.5% at the start of the year to 18.6%, highest since 1933, according to the Budget Lab at Yale University.
But China tested the limits of a U.S. trade policy built around using tariffs as a cudgel to beat concessions out of trading partners. Beijing had a cudgel of its own: cutting off or slowing access to its rare earths minerals and magnets – used in everything from electric vehicles to jet engines.
In June, the two countries reached an agreement to ease tensions. The United States said it would pull back export restrictions on computer chip technology and ethane, a feedstock in petrochemical production. And China agreed to make it easier for U.S. firms to get access to rare earths.
“The U.S. has realized it does not have the upper hand,’’ said Claire Reade, senior counsel at Arnold & Porter and former assistant U.S. trade representative for China affairs.
In May, the U.S. and China had averted an economic catastrophe by reducing massive tariffs they’d slapped on each other’s products, which had reached as high as 145% against China and 125% against the U.S.
Those triple-digit tariffs threatened to effectively end trade between the United States and China and caused a frightening sell-off in financial markets. In a May meeting in Geneva they agreed to back off and keep talking: America’s tariffs went back down to a still-high 30% and China’s to 10%.
Having demonstrated their ability to hurt each other, they’ve been talking ever since.
“By overestimating the ability of steep tariffs to induce economic concessions from China, the Trump administration has not only underscored the limits of unilateral U.S. leverage, but also given Beijing grounds for believing that it can indefinitely enjoy the upper hand in subsequent talks with Washington by threatening to curtail rare earth exports,’’ said Ali Wyne, a specialist in U.S.-China relations at the International Crisis Group. “The administration’s desire for a trade détente stems from the self-inflicted consequences of its earlier hubris.”
It’s unclear whether Washington and Beijing can reach a grand bargain over America’s biggest grievances. Among these are lax Chinese protection of intellectual property rights and Beijing’s subsidies and other industrial policies that, the Americans say, give Chinese firms an unfair advantage in world markets and have contributed to a massive U.S. trade deficit with China of $262 billion last year.
Reade doesn’t expect much beyond limited agreements such as the Chinese saying they will buy more American soybeans and promising to do more to stop the flow of chemicals used to make fentanyl and to allow the continued flow of rare-earth magnets.
But the tougher issues will likely linger, and “the trade war will continue grinding ahead for years into the future,’’ said Jeff Moon, a former U.S. diplomat and trade official who now runs the China Moon Strategies consultancy.
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Associated Press Staff Writers Josh Boak and Huizhong Wu contributed to this story.
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Putin hosts growing BRICS alliance in Russia, touting it as an alternative to the West’s “perverse methods”
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Kazan, Russia — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday presided at the closing session of a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, praising its role as a counterbalance to what he called the West’s “perverse methods.” The three-day summit in the city of Kazan covered the deepening of financial cooperation, including the development of alternatives to Western-dominated payment systems, efforts to settle regional conflicts and expansion of the BRICS group of nations.
The alliance that initially included Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa when it was founded in 2009 has expanded to embrace Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia have formally applied to become members, and several other countries have expressed interest in joining.
The summit was attended by leaders or representatives of 36 countries, highlighting the failure of U.S.-led efforts to isolate Russia over its war in Ukraine. The Kremlin touted the summit as “the largest foreign policy event ever held” by Russia.
Speaking at what was dubbed the “BRICS Plus” session, which included countries that are considering joining the bloc, Putin accused the West of trying to stem the growing power of the Global South with “illegal unilateral sanctions, blatant protectionism, manipulation of currency and stock markets, and relentless foreign influence ostensibly promoting democracy, human rights, and the climate change agenda.”
“Such perverse methods and approaches — to put it bluntly — lead to the emergence of new conflicts and the aggravation of old disagreements,” Putin said. “One example of this is Ukraine, which is being used to create critical threats to Russia’s security, while ignoring our vital interests, our just concerns, and the infringement of the rights of Russian-speaking people.”
Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine more than two years ago, and Russian forces now occupy an estimated 20% of the country. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the war, which Putin has claimed at various stages was either a response to NATO’s eastward expansion, or a defense of pro-Russian populations in eastern Ukraine.
Support from the U.S. and its NATO allies has helped Ukraine prevent Russia’s complete takeover, but many in the region fear the November U.S. presidential election could bring a second term for former President Donald Trump, who’s seen as more sympathetic to Putin and less likely to maintain current levels of support for Kyiv.
Russia has specifically pushed for the creation of a new payment system that would offer an alternative to the global bank messaging network SWIFT, which would enable Moscow to dodge Western sanctions and trade with its partners — some of which are also heavily sanctioned by the U.S. and its allies — more easily.
In a joint declaration Wednesday, participants voiced concern about “the disruptive effect of unlawful unilateral coercive measures, including illegal sanctions,” and reiterated their commitment to enhancing financial cooperation within BRICS. They noted the benefits of “faster, low-cost, more efficient, transparent, safe and inclusive cross-border payment instruments built upon the principle of minimizing trade barriers and non-discriminatory access.”
MAXIM SHIPENKOV/Pool via REUTERS
China’s President Xi Jinping has emphasized the bloc’s role in ensuring global security. Xi noted that China and Brazil have put forward a peace plan for Ukraine and sought to rally broader international support for it. Ukraine has rejected the proposal.
“We should promote the de-escalation of the situation as soon as possible and pave the way for a political settlement,” Xi said Thursday.
Putin and Xi had announced a “no-limits” partnership weeks before Russia sent troops into Ukraine in 2022. Moscow declared its intention at the time to forge a new “democratic world order” with China. Putin and Xi met again twice earlier this year, in Beijing in May and at a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Kazakhstan in July.
Russia’s cooperation with India also has flourished as New Delhi sees Moscow as a time-tested partner since the Cold War despite Russia’s close ties with India’s rival, China. While Western allies want New Delhi to be more active in persuading Moscow to end the fighting in Ukraine, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has avoided condemning Russia while emphasizing a peaceful settlement.
Putin, who held a series of bilateral meetings on the summit’s sidelines, was set to meet Thursday with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who is making his first visit to Russia in more than two years. Guterres’s trip to Kazan drew an angry reaction from Kyiv.
Addressing the BRICS Plus session, Guterres urged an immediate end to the fighting in Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine and Sudan. “We need peace in Ukraine, a just peace in line with the U.N. Charter, international law and General Assembly resolutions,” he said.
Russia’s Kremlin-controlled media touted the summit as a massive policy coup that left the West fearing the loss of its global clout. State TV shows and news bulletins underscored that BRICS countries account for about half the world’s population comprising the “global majority” and challenging Western “hegemony.”
TV hosts elaborately quoted Western media reports saying that the summit highlighted the failure to isolate Moscow. “The West, the U.S., Washington, Brussels, London ended up isolating themselves,” said Yevgeny Popov, host of a popular political talk show on state channel Rossiya 1.
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China laments ‘garbage time of history’ as economy comes off peak and growth model hits dead end, expert says
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People in China are so discouraged about the economic outlook that many have taken to social media to call it the “garbage time of history,” referring to the end of NBA games when the result is settled and players go through the motions until time runs out.
Use of the phrase earned rebukes from state-run media over the summer, but it tapped into a deepening gloom that has spread to Wall Street as fresh data point to worsening weakness in top economic drivers. Bank of America recently cut its 2024 growth forecast to 4.8% from 5% and sees further slowing in the next two years to 4.5%.
In an article for the China Leadership Monitor last weekend, Rhodium Group partner Logan Wright said that while China is still growing faster many other countries, its global influence probably peaked in 2021.
That’s when it reached 18.3% of world GDP, before dipping to 16.9% in 2023. Meanwhile, the U.S. share is sitting at about 25%.
The problem isn’t just cyclical. Wright said “the primary reason that China’s economic slowdown is structural in nature is one that Beijing acknowledges: the credit and investment-led growth model has reached a dead end.”
All that capital fed massive property construction and infrastructure development. But noting has replaced them as growth drivers, and China’s teetering financial system is unlikely to give rise to any new ones, he wrote.
Credit expansion will slow, dragging down investment growth and the economy’s long-term prospects, he said. Meanwhile, the political leadership’s fear of letting defaults, bankruptcies and unemployment rise is preventing the financial system from channeling capital to more productive sectors of the economy.
“The financial system itself is now constraining China’s economic growth rather than facilitating it,” Wright explained. “In addition to demographics and the changing external environment, financial constraints are the primary reason why China’s economic slowdown is structural in nature and why China’s economy is likely to grow at rates below potential over the next decade.”
To be sure, Beijing has known its old growth model couldn’t last and has promoted advanced manufacturing in emerging sectors like EVs and green energy as alternatives. But those aren’t big enough to offset declining property or infrastructure construction, he said.
China’s leadership has also identified the need to rebalance the economy toward more consumption instead of investment. But that’s hampered by income inequality that requires an overhaul of fiscal policy to prioritize transfer payments that boost household spending.
Given the obstacles, what’s likely to happen is that consumption growth will continue to decline gradually and weigh on future economic growth, Wright predicted.
President Xi Jinping and China’s other leaders may not fully grasp the severity of the situation, as the official economic statistics they digest look increasingly dubious. At the same time, they also appear fixated on overtaking the U.S. as the world’s top economy.
But if Xi and company can change their worldview, it could help the Chinese economy, Wright said. For example, export-led growth that relies on taking global market share sparks trade barriers. By contrast, focusing more on domestic consumption could reduce trade conflicts.
Still, he’s not convinced it will happen.
“China’s economy peaking in global influence also offers Beijing a new opportunity to realistically redefine its goals and to become less confrontational with the rest of the world’s economic and political interests,” he said. “But we are under no illusions that such a redefinition is probable.”
The warning comes as investors have also been jolted recently by red flags about China’s economy.
PDD Holdings, the parent company of e-commerce giant Temu, stunned Wall Street last month with weak quarterly results and a warning that intense competition will dampen future profits. Shares sank more than 30%, wiping out $50 billion in PDD’s market value.
That was the latest warning sign that the world’s second-largest economy could be headed for a downward spiral caused by overproduction and Beijing’s industrial planning.
“Simply put, in many crucial economic sectors, China is producing far more output than it, or foreign markets, can sustainably absorb,” wrote Zongyuan Zoe Liu, a China scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations, in Foreign Affairs magazine before the PDD reported earnings. “As a result, the Chinese economy runs the risk of getting caught in a doom loop of falling prices, insolvency, factory closures, and, ultimately, job losses.”
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