Also in today’s newsletter, Canada’s Carney prepares to take on Trump, and China’s copper stockpiles set to run out

Xi's Shanghai trip, his first to China's main international financial hub since November 2023, comes at a time when the tariff fight with the U.S. has raised the stakes for global economic growth, and as Beijing pursues AI development in the wake of the global success of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek.

The view that the Chinese leadership was desperate to negotiate a trade deal, to avoid economic pain that could destabilize Chinese society and threaten the Chinese Communist Party’s monopoly on power, is common among China hawks in the United States. This analysis is partly accurate, but it has led many to draw false conclusions.

President Trump said in an interview broadcasting later Tuesday that China “will probably eat those tariffs” when talking about the 145 percent overall tariff on its products. The president got

"You don't know whether or not China's going to eat it," Trump said of the potential for tariffs on Chinese goods to increase consumer prices.

Donald Trump has repeatedly urged Xi Jinping to call him for discussions about a potential trade deal. But any off-ramp to the economic tensions will likely run through Vice Premier He Lifeng, who is Xi's Sino-American trade tsar.