Much of the world’s attention turned to Trump as he attended a summit in China this week, and some — according to Rich on today’s edition of The Editors — were worried that “the Chinese would have dangled some enormous commercial deal in front of Trump’s eyes . . . and gotten Trump to move a little on Taiwan or maybe a lot on Taiwan.” While that didn’t happen, Michael points out that it’s as if the Chinese “attended a different meeting.”
“Trump was very much emphasizing the trade stuff and ‘fantastic trade deals,'” says Michael, while China put out releases saying that “this was about coming to new common understandings about Taiwan and the strait.” He points out that “there was even a little bit of warning language in the Chinese readout statement saying that, ‘If Taiwan is mishandled, it could lead to conflict.'”
Michael stresses that “overall, it seemed like both sides are saying, ‘Everything’s stable. Don’t worry about us. We’re both attending to other bigger problems right now.'” These could be Trump’s war on Iran and China’s domestic growth problems, says Michael, “although China is finding ways to export to new markets around the world and finding ways to export around our trade barriers, frankly.”
“This felt like the two great powers of the world deferring any major issues.”
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