China

Robert Reich -   The American CEOs traveling with Trump to China don’t think of themselves as being in competition with China. In fact, they’d like nothing better than to make more money for themselves and their shareholders by setting up more lower-cost, highly productive factories and research facilities in China and hiring more Chinese talent.

It’s an important distinction. The CEOs of Chinese companies are in business not only to make money but also to strengthen China’s geopolitical power in the world. The CEOs of American companies want to make gobs of money, of course, but they couldn’t give a rat’s ass about strengthening America’s geopolitical power in the world.

The Guardian

On the western edge of Tiananmen Square in Beijing, in the imposing Mao-era Great Hall of the People, Donald Trump and Xi Jinping sat down for two hours of talks. After the meeting, China’s foreign ministry published Xi’s remarks. He said Taiwan was “the most important issue in China-US relations” and warned of “clashes and even conflicts” with the US over its future. Beijing wants the US to reduce its levels of support for Taiwan, a self-governing island that China claims as part of its territory. Xi has made “unification” with Taiwan a core priority for his legacy and has not ruled out the use of force.

The Chinese government said the two leaders discussed the war in the Middle East, the Ukraine conflict and issues on the Korean peninsula. As my colleagues Amy Hawkins and David Smith have written, the US is entering into talks with its superpower rival from a vulnerable position. Follow our live coverage of the summit here.