Tag: Xi Jinping

Economic Strain Is Pitting China’s People Against One Another

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For years, the mood in China has been darkening. A weakening economy has left many disillusioned, a state of mind expressed privately and across the heavily controlled internet in lowered expectations and quiet anxiety. Some of that may now be surfacing in more troubling ways. In March, a man drove a heavy construction vehicle through an outdoor market in a Beijing suburb, reportedly killing several people. In June, a small aircraft crashed into a prominent office building in the capital, killing the pilot and injuring 13 others in what may…

Two giant pandas set off to Atlanta zoo from China after Xi-Trump summit

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Two giant pandas departed Chengdu in south-western China early on Sunday for their new homes in Atlanta, Georgia, as part of an agreement between the Chinese and US governments. While in Washington DC for a three–day summit with Donald Trump, Chinese president Xi Jinping announced that the pandas would arrive in Atlanta in the coming days. The loan of the pandas to the Atlanta zoo was one of the few concrete outcomes to come out of Xi’s state visit with the US president, which saw expressions of goodwill between the…

Trump and Chinese president Xi end summit without major agreement on AI

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Donald Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping wrapped up their Washington summit on Friday, facing criticism that they had squandered an opportunity to pause their countries’ artificial intelligence (AI) arms race. The three-day state visit emphasised pageantry and personal rapport rather than substantial agreements. The US president and Xi discussed the wars in Iran and Ukraine and the status of Taiwan. Their biggest policy announcement was a modest two-month extension of a trade truce. But despite the presence of top tech executives at a White House state dinner on Thursday…

The Guardian view on Trump and Xi: a show of friendship, but no real attempt to address the tensions | Editorial

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Within days, two high-profile Chinese visitors will arrive in the US – envoys of friendship, as Xi Jinping described them when he met Donald Trump at the White House this week. The giant pandas, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, will be hosted at Atlanta zoo. Beijing dispatched the first panda pair to the US in 1972 following President Richard Nixon’s landmark visit to China. It uses the animals to indicate satisfaction or displeasure with other nations. But it also charges heftily for their lease: reportedly, around $1m a year per pair.…

OpenAI hack on Australian government reveals anxiety at heart of global artificial intelligence dilemma

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When the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, sat down for an interview in the heart of Silicon Valley at the weekend he had known for two days that his was the first government known to have been attacked by a rogue AI agent. He didn’t reveal the attack then, but he sounded a warning about the march of AI: “the risk is that AI develops in a way in which humans are no longer in control of what AI is producing.” But Albanese noted, too, that two countries – the…

Pomp over progress as Trump rolls out red carpet for China’s president Xi Jinping

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If the Beijing meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in May was the “stalemate summit”, the second round of talks between the presidents of the US and China this week seemed to give up entirely on the idea of breakthroughs. Instead, it was described as a celebration of “diplotainment” rather than diplomacy, where pomp prevailed over progress and where one of the main outcomes was the news that two giant pandas would soon be sent from China to Atlanta zoo. Trump rolled out the red carpet for Xi’s arrival…

Trump picked a fight with the media… and lost | Politics Weekly America

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The US press corps stood up to Donald Trump this week after he banned three organisations he doesn’t like from the White House. But when it came to the leader of one of the US’s oldest adversaries – China – well, Trump literally rolled out a very long red carpet. Jonathan Freedland speaks to the Guardian’s Shrai Popat about why Trump seems weaker these days, but why it could be dangerous to underestimate him The Guardian

Diplomacy or ‘diplotainment’? Key takeaways from the Trump-Xi summit in Washington

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1. Diplomacy or ‘diplotainment’? Senate Democrats criticised Trump’s summit with Xi, saying it prioritised pageantry over substance on the major issues. There was no sign a brief closed-door meeting yielded breakthroughs on the thorny issues of AI, trade, Taiwan and the war with Iran. Both countries agreed to extend until 10 January an agreement pausing their trade war, but experts said there were few other obvious tangible outcomes. Xi once again invoked the “Thucydides Trap”, an academic theory that competition between a rising power and an established one often results…

Trump swoons over strongman soulmate Xi – are you feeling jealous, Vladimir?

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One is an authoritarian who represses the media with a strong allergy to democratic elections. The other is head of the Chinese Communist party. Donald Trump welcomed the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, to the White House on Thursday, setting the stage for a scene quite unlike anything the august old building has seen over more than two centuries. “Remarkably,” observed the US president, “this is our first time meeting together here at the White House, and as President Xi has already seen, a lot has changed since he was last…

At Trump meeting, Xi Jingping lays out terms to avoid US-China military conflict

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Xi Jingping has called for extensive cooperation with Washington to avoid the “Thucydides trap” that could put the US and China on a military collision course. At the start of his summit meeting with Donald Trump in the White House, the Chinese president laid out terms for a mutual understanding that he said could avoid military conflict between the two competing superpowers. “We should strengthen communication. China and the United States are different in national conditions, but through candid, in-depth and continued dialog, our two countries can understand each other…