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👀 As soon as Trump left, the CCP started playing the "balancing" game again. Xinhua News Agency hurriedly pinned a top headline on its front page: “Xi Jinping and Russian President Putin Send Congratulatory Messages to the 10th China-Russia Expo Respectively.” When you click in, there’s only one sentence: “Xinhua Flash: On May 17, President Xi Jinping and Russian President Putin sent congratulatory messages to the 10th China-Russia Expo respectively.” When the spokesperson for the CCP’s Ministry of Commerce answered questions about the outcomes of the China-U.S. economic and trade consultations, he listed five results: 1. Both sides will continue to implement the outcomes of previous consultations and have reached a positive consensus on relevant tariff arrangements. *(My two cents: This is basically meaningless boilerplate.) 2. Both sides agreed to establish a Trade Council and an Investment Council to discuss each side’s respective concerns in the fields of trade and investment. Through the Trade Council, they will discuss issues such as tariff reductions on certain products and have in principle agreed to reduce tariffs on products of equivalent scale that each side is concerned about. (Comment: Too vague, too general, lacks details.) 3. Both sides will resolve or substantially promote the resolution of certain non-tariff barriers and market access issues for agricultural products. The U.S. side will actively promote the resolution of China’s long-standing concerns regarding automatic detention of dairy and aquatic products, medium-sized potted landscape plants exported to the U.S., and the recognition of Shandong as a poultry influenza-free zone, etc. The Chinese side will also actively promote the resolution of U.S. concerns such as beef facility registration and poultry meat exports from certain states to China. (Comment: Still lacks details. Basically, it means China is going to buy more U.S. beef and poultry?) 4. Both sides agreed to promote the expansion of two-way trade in areas including agricultural products through mutual tariff reductions on a certain range of products and other arrangements. (Too vague, too general, lacks details, and overlaps with the previous two points.) 5. Both sides have reached arrangements regarding China’s purchase of aircraft from the U.S. and the U.S. ensuring the supply of aircraft engines and parts to China, and agreed to continue advancing cooperation in related fields. (China will purchase aircraft from the U.S.) So overall, it boils down to this: China will buy some American planes, and that’s about it. Nothing else of substance. Also: When Xi Jinping accompanied President Trump in reviewing the CCP’s military honor guard, Trump solemnly returned the military salute, while Xi showed no reaction at all. Some people joked: “If you didn’t know better, you’d think Trump was the commander-in-chief of the PLA.” And honestly, it really did look that way. On one hand, it reflects Xi Jinping’s arrogance toward his own military. He simply does not show the kind of respect for service members that Trump does. On the other hand, perhaps after previously embarrassing himself by saluting troops with his left hand during an inspection, he no longer dares—or no longer wants—to give military salutes.