Incoming chair of Senate Foreign Relations Committee @ChrisCoons says Congress will investigate the “insane relationship between the Trump administration, Chinese spies, and AI billionaires.” 👇

Some #USChina# #WeekendReading# 📕👇 [Older but relevant to this week] Will Trump abandon Taiwan Behind Trump's truce with China [This week] Pomp prevails over substance as Trump hosts Xi Has Trump caged his China hawks?

Xi Jinping will stay at the Waldorf Astoria - former Trump hotel - in Washington. On his last visit in 2015, he stayed at Blair House, the official US guest house across from the White House. Maybe he heard Hu Jintao could not get to sleep there years ago because of the noise! I suspect @dennisw5 can provide some color on that 😉

EXCLUSIVE: Read my interview with Treasury Secretary #ScottBessent# and USTR #JamiesonGreer# after meeting Chinese vice-premier He Lifeng in New York 👇 Separately, senior US official told me the two sides did not reach agreement on extending the Busan truce.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent & Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng will hold their meeting on Sunday at 10.30am at JPMorgan’s headquarters in New York. JPM is providing the venue but not involved in the talks. #USChinaScoop#

“This administration has been confusing NATO topics with unilateral US military operations,” a senior defense official from a NATO ally told me. It reflects “the Pentagon’s desire to develop the case for specific, almost vindictive force presence reductions” a Euro official said.

NEW: A source sent me the questionnaire the Pentagon is putting to NATO Allies. Asking how "publicly supportive of US foreign policy" allies are, about restrictions on US troops and progress on Trump priorities.

New from me: Is Trump really giving Xi a state visit 40 days before the midterms? Presidents ordinarily have strong incentives to avoid honoring a deeply unpopular foreign rival on the eve of a close national election. Trump appears entirely untroubled by that risk. Is he signaling that he believes he has mastered the politics of U.S.-China relations? Or does he simply not care? Here's a guided tour of the strange theater of U.S.-China presidential diplomacy—from oversized Chinese flags on the White House grounds to the toasts, pop-star performances, and protocol slip-ups that have defined past visits. Read it here:

Asahi writes that Japan's public releases on Chinese military activities around Japan has changed under Koizumi. Proactive public communication seen as necessary to raise international awareness & not accepting unilateral changes to status quo.

Texas, Pennsylvania and now Ohio. This is a powder keg and has the potential to unwind 200-300 basis points of annual GDP if it metastasizes. How did it get this bad? The collective leadership of frontier AI has failed miserably in doing the basics: 1. Paint a positive picture of what is possible with AI. Instead of spilling the ink on the glass half full, stories abound of pearl clutching, catastrophizing or arcane technical jargon that, together, breed mistrust, fear and skepticism. 2. Visibly and disproportionately enrich the local communities AI data centers operate in. Tell these stories with a megaphone and have local leaders lead with the financial proof so it’s irrefutable. 3. Stop infighting and stop trying to influence the government or trick them because of the asymmetric knowledge the industry has relative to outsiders and observers. This further makes it seem like a shady money grab to many bystanders. Data centers have unfortunately become THE symbolic representation of the asymmetric upside for a very narrow tech elite and a class that are untrustworthy. Inasmuch, the safer bet may be that the pushback and resistance grows…

North Korea fires around 10 ballistic missiles, prompting South Korea to convene an emergency meeting of NSC. The short-range missiles were launched from Pyongyang area towards the sea between Japan and Korea.