Preparations for the high-stakes US-China summit in Washington next month are off to a rocky start.
The US has imposed more tariffs on Chinese goods, added dozens more Chinese companies to a forced labor blacklist, and banned new Chinese humanoid robots.
Meanwhile, China is tightening approvals for exports of rare earth products — a key bargaining chip at the last summit in Beijing, which sealed an uneasy trade truce.
A senior Chinese official came away from recent meetings in Washington with the impression that US President Donald Trump hasn’t given clear direction to his team, former Obama administration adviser Ryan Hass told Semafor. A former US trade negotiator added: “It looks like just holding the truce together has become the main objective.”