A Michael Korvig piece in Foreign Affairs a week before Trump’s visit to Beijing…
Trump should lead [the West] by example, eschew the mistakes of other visiting heads of state, and refuse ephemeral deals that deepen the United States’ dependence on China. Rather than seeking superficial adulation from Beijing, he should use the upcoming visit to strengthen deterrence by coordinating in advance with allies and setting redlines that none will cross, signaling he will impose costs for Chinese coercion that targets any of them, and conditioning any concessions on verifiable follow-through. That would diminish Beijing’s confidence in its strategy of compelling accommodation from individual countries.
By accepting the terms Xi sets and performing in his authoritarian pageantry, these prestigious [Western] visitors are gratifying his yearning to be recognized as the world’s foremost strongman. Over time, such displays add up, and when combined with acquiescence on material matters such as Western leaders’ reluctance to sanction Chinese companies that support Russia’s war on Ukraine, they can shape other countries’ assessments of geopolitical power and legitimacy.
…few of these deals buy economic resilience for the visiting countries. Instead, they reorient trade in ways that impede the development of their own economies. Exports to China are increasingly dominated by agricultural commodities, processed foods, and natural resources—fiercely competitive industries that require heavy investment in logistics, making substitution easier for Chinese buyers than foreign suppliers. Cases of CCP coercion targeting Australian wine, Canadian canola, and Norwegian salmon illustrate the imbalance: Beijing can rotate suppliers and leave unfavored ones to absorb years of losses. To stay in Beijing’s good graces, these countries must accept ever more imports of China’s increasingly advanced manufactured goods while their own industrial and technological bases wither.
I don’t think Trump read this article.
Trump himself says he made ‘fantastic’ trade deals.
So we had the White House official account tweeting about ‘American strength back on the world stage’ – against a montage of Trump being welcomed by Chinese soldiers and children.
When you see the US present itself as though they are lucky to have their leader come to China and to be back in business, you start to wonder whether getting rid of so many State Department officials was such a good idea after all.
…It did not need to be this way, of course. Poor preparation; lack of expertise; the total conviction that business deals are the way to do foreign policy all play a part in what will go down one day as a set-piece of how not to do a summit.
Trump’s performance in China has been a unique, extraordinary and embarrassing combination of weakness, obsequiousness, lack of preparation, amateurism, and incompetence. It just seems normal because we’ve become desensitized by the constant circus.
And, on video, John Bolton.
China Daily’s front page for May 13…
Note his missus was smart enough to skip the trip.
And where was buxom ‘Barbie” Leavitt???
Trump was played and humiliated – he got nothing. I’m no fan of the CCP and China’s attempt to monopolise trade and power is not going to end well, but Trump deserved what he got – from the stage-managed children dancing for him to the serving up of Taiwan so that he crumbled and was made to look like the incompetent geriatric ignoramus he is
And where was buxom ‘Barbie” Leavitt???
Preumably using her buxomness to feed her new-born daughter.
@Mary
Karoline Leavitt is on maternity leave, having given birth to her 2nd child about 10 days ago.
No doubt you demented Trump haters will find something nasty to say about that, too.
@Mary Melville
Karoline Leavitt just give birth to her second child and is on maternity leave. Perhaps we can lay off on the sexist language?
@Mary Melville – Leavitt is on maternity leave; she gave birth at the beginning of May.
Much mouth frothing over MM’s comment.
Highly entertaining.
O/T from the SCMP
Hong Kong authorities have allocated HK$5 billion (US$638 million) in funding for efforts to safeguard national security, bringing the total amount earmarked for this purpose to HK$18 billion over the past five years, an official document has revealed.
WTF are they spending the money on?
That is 0ver HK$8,000,000 a day every day of the year for the last 5 years.
Correction: HK$7 billion a day.
@someone
Correction: your math sucks.
It is indeed amusing to see all these chivalrous men come to Ms. Leavitt’s defense.
She’s still the public spokesperson for a racist, fascist regime, and her words clearly show her personal allegiance to that system of power.
There, no sexist connotations whatsoever.
Here’s a succinct summary of FDT’s visit from a Twitter post. Despite the heightened tone, there’s not much to argue with here. The one thing he neglects to mention (typical of big picture political analyses) is that millions of actual people live in Taiwan.
Post
Conversation
🇺🇸 Ronald Carter
@USronaldcarter
Nobody is telling you how FUCKED every American ally on Earth just became.
Everyone is watching the Trump-Xi summit. The handshakes. The deal-making.
Nobody is talking about the fact that Trump just turned a democracy into a bargaining chip.
Taiwan. The island that built TSMC into the most important company on Earth. Decades of investment. Engineering talent. Strategic vision. The backbone of every iPhone, every AI chip, every F-35 guidance system on the planet.
Trump called it theft.
→ Cost to Taiwan to build TSMC: 50 years of national industrial strategy
→ Cost to America to benefit from TSMC: $0 — they just bought the chips
→ That is not theft. That is called “your ally did the work you wouldn’t.”
Taiwan signed a $250B US investment pledge in January 2026. Built fabs in Arizona. Played by every rule America asked.
In return, in a single 48-hour window after the Xi summit:
→ Trump called Taiwan “a place nobody knows how to define”
→ Held their arms sales hostage as a “negotiating chip” with China
→ Said he’s “not looking” to defend their independence
→ Blamed them for “stealing” American industry
→ Told them to “cool it”
💀 Here’s what nobody is explaining to you:
This doesn’t just change THIS alliance. This changes ALL alliances. Forever.
→ Every country that built its security around American commitments just watched those commitments become leverage
→ South Korea is watching. Japan is watching. The Gulf states are watching.
→ The message is now clear: American defense guarantees are not guarantees — they are negotiating positions
→ The moment America needs something from your adversary, YOU become the bargaining chip
→ Taiwan built the world’s most critical technology infrastructure
→ America used it for 30 years
→ Then called it theft when it needed something from China
The US spent 70 years building an alliance system premised on the idea that commitments mean something.
Trump just replaced it with a system where everything — arms sales, defense pledges, diplomatic recognition — has a price tag that resets every time America needs leverage.
This is not a Taiwan story. This is the end of the post-war alliance era and nobody is calling it what it is.
Bookmark this. You’re watching the biggest shift in American foreign policy since the end of the Cold War.
I’m posting things here you won’t see anywhere else. Follow before that changes.
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4:49 AM · May 16, 2026
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@Archie Medes
It’s my spelling that’s fucked…7 Million a day