Cars to fighter planes: How Xi Jinping is trying shock

The trade truce is over. After a few quiet weeks, US and China have lurched back into confrontation, and Beijing chose an opening salvo designed to be seen-and felt-from auto plants to air bases. TL;DR: Driving the news Why it matters The big picture Two leaders, one shared logic: “Reliability is for losers. Strength keeps superpowers safe.” That bleak creed, as the Economist put it, helps explain why both capitals are volleying threats with little regard for third-country collateral damage. Beijing frames its measures as safeguarding “the security and stability of global supply chains” and - given the military applications - “to better defend world peace,” calling China “a responsible major country”. However, Western embassies in Beijing call that “preposterous."