China US Trade ‘breakthrough’: Who blinked first?

After months of a “vicious cycle of mutual retaliation”, as Xi Jinping has put it, Donald Trump and China’s president seem to have come to a truce after their first meeting in nearly six years.

Meeting in South Korea, Xi agreed to stop withholding China’s rare earth exports for a year and start buying soy beans from America again. While Trump said he would reduce tariffs and suspend port fees on Chinese ships. But how long will this amicable relationship last? Will all of this signal a closer tie between the world’s two biggest economies?

On this episode of the Fourcast, Matt Frei is joined by Victor Gao, vice president of the Centre for China and Globalization in Beijing, and Dr Yu Jie, senior research fellow on China at Chatham House.