US President Donald Trump said Chinese leader Xi Jinping will visit Washington this year, the latest sign of rhetorical bonhomie between the two leaders despite their countries’ growing tensions.
China has warned the US that a new, planned transfer of arms to Taiwan — which follows a record defense sale last year — may threaten Trump’s scheduled April trip to Beijing, the Financial Times said, while the Trump administration recently accused China of secretly conducting nuclear tests in contravention of Beijing’s stated assertions that it abides by global agreements that prohibit such activity.
Both countries are diverging on trade, too. They are, in the words of one leading economist, “running away from each other as much as possible.”