My metaphor for US-China relations 👇

What really happened after the State Dinner. The lost Xi camera roll has been found.

ft.com/content/bd99d372-d3d1… “The two leaders genuinely seem to enjoy each other’s company. It’s rare to see Xi so relaxed,” said Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the German Marshall Fund. “Now that they have committed to attend the Apec and G20 meetings, the odds that relative stability in the bilateral relationship will endure for the rest of the year are high.” Trump and Xi to meet twice more after summit fails to resolve tensions ft.com/content/bd99d372-d3d1… via @ft

Read @jonczin on how the United States and Taiwan can work together to prepare for a future crisis: foreignaffairs.com/taiwan/co…

If you are in New York next week, please join us at @Columbia. We will be discussing the new so called "ethnic unity" law and its broader ramifications.

The Trump-Xi summit should be viewed not as a one-off but rather as another diplomatic spike in a long year: 1. The state visit was the second of four U.S.-China summit opportunities in 2026. And even more than last time, this one was more sizzle than steak. 2. Heavy on the pageantry, there were more military flyovers than substantive agreements. The two sides extended the trade truce, but only by two months, reduced tariffs on $30B in goods, and announced an AI dialogue. 3. For China, the visit was a major opportunity to show the world - and the Chinese people - that Xi and Trump are two superpower leaders, and that the Chinese leader is now recognized as such. Hence the U.S. literally rolling out the red carpet, top CEOs joining him in Washington, the President greeting his plane, etc.  4. There was naturally wall-to-wall coverage in the Chinese press. The summit served Beijing’s narrative of an inexorably rising China.  5. The U.S. got two pandas, which is something, I suppose. It seems to have gotten nothing on Taiwan, the South China Sea, gray zone activity, Iran, Russia-Ukraine, AI distillation, human rights, or other grievances. 6. Instead, stability was the watchword. Both sides emphasized commonalities and abstract goals rather than the reality of strategic competition or the very real divergence in outlook. 7. Xi even invoked history to remind Americans that they once teamed with China to fight Japanese militarism. Perhaps, he suggested, we’re seeing echoes of that era today.  8. That perturbed some Japanese experts. Perhaps, if Xi repeats often enough that the U.S. and China were once united against Japan, Americans could be convinced to do it again? No chance. The Chinese and Japanese governments were very different back then, to put it mildly.  9. No one today confuses the two or believes that Japan, rather China, represents America’s great long run strategic challenge. Even Trump, despite his affection for Xi and his 1980s mindset on Japan, says the U.S. needs to beat China on AI. 10. It’s good to keep up bilateral communications, given the power of both sides and the stakes in the U.S.-China relationship. Rather than simply look ahead to the next opportunities in Shenzhen and Miami, however, Washington should focus on everything that happens in between the meetings. 11. That means returning to vigorous competition, strengthening the U.S. position in all ways, working closely with American allies and partners, and constraining key Chinese capabilities. We have a long way to go in reassuming a strategic mindset.

You may find this strange but I prefer bars with alcohol and no pets 🍶😉 But here is a bonus selection of Tokyo bars including one that has over 1300 kinds of whiskey🥃 Follow at Instagram.com/asialens.demet…

Can neither confirm nor deny

The most famous American to ever visit Paris.

White House said they agreed to say SI. Chinese foreign ministry statement says AI.

Couple points on US-China post-summit statements ⬇️ 🔹 Chinese statement says the US & Chinese militaries agreed to conclude an MOU on crisis communication. White House statement is silent on this. US official told me: “This is not accurate and was not even discussed”. 🔹 White House statement says the two leaders agreed to use the phrase “super intelligence” – a phrase Trump has been promoting – instead of “artificial intelligence” [AI]. Chinese statement says they established an “AI Dialogue”. Check out ft.com soon for our story. And if you're tired of my stories, you know what to do👇 Check out my photography at Instagram.com/asialens.demet… or demetrisevastopulo.com

Amazing detail in this @wsj article about Kimberly Guilfoyle, US ambassador to Greece: she told a Greek minister, in a conversation about the collapse of the Romanian government,“We can do that to any country we want. We can do that here." wsj.com/articles/kimberly-gu…

Longer pieces for weekend reading below and our latest on the Trump-Xi summit here: ft.com/content/bd99d372-d3d1…

Our @FT story on #TrumpXiSummit US & China statements. More overlap than usual but some interesting differences bit.ly/4Az39w5

Iran is mentioned - in US and Chinese factsheets

Agree with @dennisw5: Especially like Evan's bottom line: "the real question arising from the summit is who will make better use of the breathing room it has created." #positioning #strategy #Evan_Medeiros @Georgetown @TheAsiaGroup

Can someone tell the American TV networks that @FT has a dedicated US-China correspondent here in Washington who covered Trump as Washington bureau chief before 😉 Trying to help a friend! 😎

Trump on Taiwan: We didn't talk about Taiwan too much with Xi. Right now, it's, you know, fine. It's just moving along. Xi understands very much how I feel.

It's noteworthy that both sides agreed verbatim to "build a constructive relationship of strategic stability on the basis of respect, fairness, and reciprocity.” And according to Xinhua, this "consensus was reached during [the] tea chat at the White House" on Friday morning.