Xi and Trump find temporary truce as China plays longer game

BBC: “China’s main principle is struggle, but don’t break,” says Keyu Jin, author of The New China Playbook.

“And it has escalated to de-escalate, which is a very new tactic.”

That is, China hit Trump where it hurt. For the first time, it limited exports of rare earths to the US – and China processes around 90% of the world’s rare earth metals.

“The nuance often missed in the rare earths debate is that China has an overwhelming position over the most strategic bit of the rare earth supply chain – the heavy rare earths used in advanced defence systems,” says Jason Bedford, macroeconomics expert and investment analyst.

“That advantage is far harder to dislodge than other parts of the rare earths industry.”

So getting China to relax those export controls became a priority for Washington – and that was a key bit of leverage for Xi when he sat down with Trump.

China had also stopped buying US soybeans, which was aimed at farmers in Republican states – Trump’s base.

Reports this week say Beijing has already started buying soybeans from the US again.

“If the US thinks that it can dominate China, it can suppress China, I think has proven to be wrong,” Ms Jin says…