Yoko Kubota left The Wall Street Journal last week. She worked for an American newspaper in a climate of rising nationalist sentiment and international tension in China. China has built a high-tech propaganda machine filled with messages describing the outside world as dangerous, including the U.S. Yanzhong Huang commented in a New York Times op-ed this week that these narratives are contributing to a "dangerous overconfidence"
Trump and Xi Jinping met in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Thursday. The most important topic up for discussion is Taiwan. Olivia Reingold profiles Zohran Mamdani's wife, Rama Duwaji. Demographers Nicholas Eberstadt and Patrick Norrick discuss the global population crash. Aaron MacLean talks to Sam Brownback about religious persecution in China.
Gross domestic product grew by 5.9 per cent year on year in the first quarter, the strongest quarterly growth in nearly five years. New listings and funds raised reached their highest first-quarter levels in years, keeping Hong Kong the top listing centre globally. Much of the recent rise in energy prices stems from disruption around the Strait of Hormuz, a reminder of how exposed Hong Kong and much of Asia remain to energy shocks.
Trump is on a business trip to China with 12 CEOs, including Apple's Tim Cook, Elon Musk, Jane Fraser and Jensen Huang. They want to make more money for themselves and their shareholders by setting up more factories and research facilities in China and hiring more Chinese talent. The CEOs of Chinese companies are in business to make money and strengthen China’s geopolitical power in the world.
Xiang Lanxin is visiting professor at East China Normal University and research fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington. Donald Trump is in China this week. Relations between Washington and Beijing remain tense, but the atmosphere in Washington has changed since the Biden administration. Trump wants to stabilize the situation in the Taiwan Strait and work with China to prevent Taiwanese independence.
Xi Jinping and Donald Trump are meeting in Beijing for a summit on global conflict, international trade and the future of artificial intelligence in less than 24 hours. Taiwan is the most important issue in China-US relations. China wants the US to reduce its support for the self-governing island, which China claims as part of its territory. The two leaders also discussed the war in the Middle East, the Ukraine conflict and issues on the Korean peninsula.
Deputy Foreign Minister Chen Ming-chi said maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait aligns with the interests of the international community. Public opinion in Taiwan is based on three core pillars: Neither Taiwan nor the People's Republic of China is subordinate to the other, Taiwan’s future must be democratically decided by the Taiwanese people, and China is expected to reduce military tensions around Taiwan. Chen hopes the U.S. will send the message that maintaining cross-strait peace is a priority for them and other countries.