Welcome to the 224th edition of Trade War.
I’m glad to be back after the two-week break. I hope all of you readers are enjoying the last few days of summer, as I am.
On to the news ~
In a sign of warming relations, China and the US agree to work together to deal with “financial stress events.” China and the EU are heading the opposite direction towards more confrontation, with Beijing taking aim at European dairy products—retaliation against Brussels’ tariffs on Chinese EVs. And China’s struggling economy is increasingly held afloat by a world flooded with its exports.
Unemployment among young Chinese goes up for the first time in five months. China’s decades-old tradition of an early retirement age reflects longtime fear of riled up, jobless youth. And Beijing further tightens control over financial information.
International auto companies being crushed into oblivion in China market. Sanctioned Huawei prepares to roll out advanced AI chip to challenge Nvidia while Chinese semiconductor firms confront consolidation. And the once-roaring, now deflating Chinese economy, after earlier creating a global commodity boom, is now ending it.
Notable/In depth ~
Aging widow is a front for Beijing, argues Stanford University in court case over former official’s papers
Chinese consumption 16% behind pre-pandemic trends
Was Mao’s righthand man Zhou Enlai an ‘intelligent’ and ‘compassionate’ leader or a ‘sycophantic enabler,’ asks new biography
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