All posts tagged "china"

Business leaders left waiting after Trump goes silent on promises from key event: report

Business leaders and industry groups are waiting for clarity and follow-up from the Trump administration on promises it made during the China summit earlier this month, according to new reporting.

The White House assured that a "board of trade" would help relieve Chinese and American tariffs, but it's still "ironing" out the plan, "a signal the clarity industry is searching for is unlikely to come all at once," Politico reported.

Ed Brzytwa, an executive for the Consumer Technology Association, said industry groups don't know what kind of products will see reduced tariffs. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer "hasn't been clear about it, neither have the Chinese," he told Politico.

Trump has "three and a half months to get this thing up and running," Wendy Cutler, a former senior U.S. trade negotiator, told Politico. She was looking ahead to Chinese leader Xi Jinping's upcoming visit to Washington in September.

"There will be pressure to show progress, given how few deliverables came out of this last summit meeting," Cutler said.

An anonymous White House official told Politico, "further details to come" on the plans that came out of the summit.

"The administration looks forward to engaging more with the business community on this historic policy that reflects our commitment to better manage trade between the U.S. and China," the official said, according to Politico.

Allies rattled as Trump signals he's wobbling on critical deal: report

U.S. allies are rattled by seeing Trump going wobbly on his position on a critical defense deal for a tense region.

Axios reported on Friday that Trump told Chinese leader Xi Jinping that "he's unsure whether he would greenlight a planned $14 billion weapons package for Taiwan."

Axios noted that Trump's cold feet have "alarmed" one of the key U.S. allies in the region, Japan. Trump talked to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi aboard Air Force One after the summit.

Takaichi told reporters after the call that, "We exchanged views ⁠on issues surrounding China, including the economy and security...and reaffirmed close communication on Indo-Pacific issues," according to reports.

However, she avoided a question about whether she and Trump spoke about Taiwan, saying only that he "briefed me in detail on the condition that our conversation remain confidential."

According to Axios, Takaichi has "found her hawkish line on Taiwan increasingly out of step with the U.S. posture," adding that South Korea and the government in Taipei have also been worried about Trump's wavering posture on defending the island.

Trump's uncertainty came despite telling reporters he and Xi discussed Taiwan in "great detail." Axios noted that the trip to China started with "a warning from Xi" about potential "conflicts" over Taiwan.

'Tale of two readouts': White House statement curiously breaks from China's in taut summit

A White House statement about Trump's discussion with Chinese leader Xi Jinping curiously took on a different tone from what counterparts put out, reporters noticed.

Politico correspondent Phelim Kine posted on X that the White House statement touted discussions of Chinese investment in the United States, fentanyl, the Strait of Hormuz, purchasing oil from the United States, and an agreement that Iran can't have a nuclear weapon.

"A Tale of Two Readouts: Here's what's in the WH readout of the Trump-Xi meeting but conspicuously absent in the Chinese readout: 1. Chinese investment into the U.S. 2. fentanyl 3. Hormuz 4. Chinese purchases of U.S. oil. 5. Agreement that Iran "can never have a nuclear weapon," Kine said.

However, Kine found that any mention of these discussions was "conspicuously absent in the Chinese readout."

Semafor journalist J.D. Capelouto wrote that it "exposed the sharp divides in their foreign policy postures," adding that "experts also noted that Beijing's briefing included a stark warning over Taiwan, which Washington's didn't mention."

Michael Froman, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, also noticed the diverging readouts in a Thursday piece, and wrote that it showed how the summit is "unlikely to alter the character and course of the US-China relationship long-term."

Tense standoff breaks out during Trump's China visit as Secret Service refuses to disarm

Tensions flared during Trump's visit to Beijing on Thursday as Chinese officials tried to disarm one of his Secret Service agents outside an historic site, according to reports.

The New York Post described the scene outside the Temple of Heaven, where "Chinese officials refused to admit a Secret Service agent accompanying the presidential press pool into the secure area because the agent was carrying a firearm."

With a press pool around them, the agent refused to disarm, and the American delegation didn't want to leave one of their own behind, which led to "the Chinese version of a Mexican standoff," the Post wrote. "After a thirty-minute delay and many arguments, another Secret Service agent who had already been cleared to proceed was summoned to escort reporters inside while the first agent stayed behind."

Fox News reporter Peter Doocy described it as a "very physical standoff." He also suggested it wasn't an isolated incident, adding that "there have been some heated and physical clashes between the Secret Service and the Chinese police at basically the backdoors of these events."

China leader's 'striking' slight to Trump in opening remarks singled out by diplomat

Former Ambassador Michael McFaul made a point of noting that President Donald Trump lavished extensive personal praise on Chinese President Xi Jinping, but Jinping did not return the favor.

During an appearance on MS NOW Thursday, the former ambassador to Russia told anchor Erielle Reshef there was a striking difference between the two leaders' opening remarks that can only be interpreted as the fact that China has the upper hand in the historic meeting.

“What is striking to me about the public remarks, just how effusive President Trump was in calling the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, a dictator and autocrat, a friend,” McFaul observed. “He just kept using the phrase ‘friend, friend, friend,’ ‘great leader, great leader, great leader.’”

“Chairman Xi Jinping said nothing reciprocal to President Trump, to the best of my mind, unless I missed it,” he added. “I never heard him call the president his friend, or even called him a great leader. The asymmetry, I think, is striking — a position of weakness, frankly.”

- YouTube youtu.be

Hot mic catches swearing as tensions soar at Trump's China summit

A tense exchange was caught on a hot mic Thursday as the summit between the U.S. and China began, according to The Daily Beast.

Inside the Great Hall of the People, Washington and Beijing's top officials were sitting down face-to-face for high-stakes bilateral talks. As they entered the room, a press pool camera that was broadcasting for PBS News was rolling live when someone with an American accent unloaded on the operator, The Beast reported.

"No, no, get the f--- out of here," the unknown person said. "No. Move. Got to move."

The camera started spinning towards the ceiling during the exchange as several people were speaking near the camera and the sound of shoes squeaking was captured.

The showdown was preceded by escalating tensions stemming from the Iran war, China's maneuvering around Taiwan, and years of economic conflict.

The leaders reportedly left the talks with "positive sentiments," according to The Beast. Chinese President Xi Jinping told reporters that relations between the two countries were "generally stable."

🚨 HOT MIC IN CHINA: "Get the F*CK out of here!" unknown voice says as the press and cameras struggle when President Trump and Xi walk in

Yikes! 👀 pic.twitter.com/LqDtVr75Zi
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 14, 2026

Erin Burnett blown away as Trump 'mocked across China': 'America has lost its swagger'

CNN anchor Erin Burnett was stunned to see the level of uninhibited mockery China has been hurling at Trump during his visit.

"Trump is about to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping tonight, a high-stakes meeting which is being mocked across China," Burnett explained. "Beijing's strict censors are letting the ridicule go viral, which is a statement in and of itself."

"America has lost its swagger. They're nothing but a paper tiger," one of those viral posts read. "The U.S. economy is in bad shape. Trump has been blustering Iran for so long."

"They will look up to us from now on," read another post that Burnett shared. "Trump came to China! We won the tariff war!" read another.

"Trump, you're welcome to visit China and learn from us," the mockery continued.

"The U.S. is no longer a country that we look up to. We can now compete with them with confidence and strength," a Chinese social media user wrote.

"In China, political content like this never goes viral, especially when you have a head of state coming," Burnett explained. "This is because government censors want this to go viral, and by the tone of the messages, the Chinese government feels they've got the upper hand."

Trump's 'Golden Dome' massively over budget and can't stop biggest threats: report

Trump's proposed "Golden Dome" missile defense system is massively over budget and won't be able to stop large-scale attacks from the top U.S. adversaries, according to a congressional report.

Last year, Trump said that the U.S. could have a Golden Dome that would outshine Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system for the price of $175 billion.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the price tag will be closer to $1.2 trillion. On top of that, "It would not be an impenetrable shield or be able to fully counter a large attack of the sort that Russia or China might be able to launch," the CBO wrote in a report published on Tuesday.

The Golden Dome is supposed to come with a "space layer" that protects the U.S. with 7,800 satellites that would be capable of intercepting 10 intercontinental ballistic missiles, and that layer alone would cost $720 billion to develop, the report found.

Those 7,800 satellites would be burned up while dragging across the atmosphere, so they would need to be replaced constantly, the report noted. Each satellite would only last for five years, so the U.S. military would need "roughly 30,000 satellites" to keep the system operational for twenty years.

"However, the system would be overwhelmed by a full-scale attack," the report stressed, warning that the plan could backfire with missile proliferation. "Such a deployment could prompt regional adversaries to increase their inventories of long-range missiles (nuclear or conventional)."

On top of that, the system would need "an industrial base to produce enough interceptors and radars, particularly of the types that have been consumed in large numbers or destroyed in the Iran War."

'Glaring': Speculation abounds as Melania noticeably absent from husband's China trip

President Donald Trump's high-stakes three-day China visit has revealed one person conspicuously missing — his wife, First Lady Melania Trump.

Trump was accompanied to Beijing with his cabinet, his son Eric, and daughter-in-law Lara, and 16 corporate CEOs, The Daily Beast reported. And hours before taking off to leave the United States, the first lady's office dropped a cryptic confirmation in a statement to the South China Morning Post, without any explanation for why she would miss out on the trip.

"First Lady Melania Trump is not travelling this time," Melania's spokesperson said.

When pressed for additional details, her team went silent.

The snub marks the latest chapter in what insiders describe as a widening rift between the first couple.

"The move comes amid speculation about the first lady increasingly breaking with her husband as she seems to be trying to charter her own course," The Beast reported. "Trump and his White House aides were reportedly blindsided last month when she called a surprise press conference to read a statement declaring she had no ties to the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The move appeared only to revive the scandal that Trump himself had been eager to put to rest."

Melania has been noticeably absent at the White House throughout the second Trump administration and often does not travel with the president. And although first ladies don't always attend trips, the questions around her attendance have raised eyebrows.

"Her absence is all the more glaring because it follows a trend that has stood out in Trump’s second term: She’s been appearing alongside him less and less on state visits," according to The Beast.

Blundering Trump just gave China what it always wanted: ex-GOP strategist

Trump has already delivered China's ambitions with "self-inflicted" wounds, an ex-GOP strategist warned ahead of the president's visit with the country's leader, Xi Jinping.

"China's ambitions, whether they are military or economic, have been delivered up by Donald Trump," Rick Wilson said on a Tuesday episode of his podcast. Trump was set to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping from May 12-15 with business leaders like Elon Musk, and Wilson noted he's going in with "cataclysmically low poll ratings" and "tremendous political weakness" amid the war in Iran.

However, while "we've lost the war in Iran," Trump started delivering "self-inflicted" wounds that benefit China's ambitions well before that, Wilson said.

"Trump starts a trade war. Almost every nation in South America is on the wrong side of Trump's trade war," Wilson explained. "What happens in South America? They cut deals with China. They're selling their products to China."

Looking at Trump's government cutbacks, Wilson said that the DOGE decision to dismantle USAID is also helping China's global standing rise above that of the United States.

"If you had gone into any African country two years ago, where there's a famine, where there's sickness, where there's poverty, where there's disease, where there's misery, you would have seen USAID workers," Wilson said. "You know what you'd see now? China. Because Elon and DOGE cut USAID and killed the program. So now those bags of food don't say, 'A gift from the people of the United States.' Now those bags of food say 'A gift from the people of the People's Republic of China.'"

Wilson predicted that as people watch Trump's visit to China, they'll see him "with a sense of discomfort, with a sense of embarrassment," even though Trump will "bluster and yell and try to pretend that he's got the strong hand here. He does not. Xi Jinping has the strong hand."