Gideon Rockman

Well, I think probably you'd have to say that China slightly has the edge, simply because they responded to President Trump's very extreme tariffs of last year, which were up to 145%, by restricting the exports of critical minerals and rare earths.

And that more or less forced America to cut tariffs to a level that China can cope with.

And they haven't really gone up since then.

And I think the Americans know that if they really went for the

all-out trade war, that China could redeploy that critical minerals and rare earths weapon, which has really quite severe effects on American industry.

Ford Motor, for example, were closing down production lines in response.

So China, I think, does have the edge in the pure trade aspects.

Well, I think there are things that China still wants from America.

Ideally, they would like tariffs to go down even further.

And there are these restrictions on tech exports, which are a serious inconvenience for the Chinese.

That said, I think that one of the things that is also giving America pause

is the sense that China is still making rapid technological progress, even in AI.

And some leading American tech firms, such as NVIDIA, say that these tech restrictions are actually going to backfire on America because they spark indigenous Chinese development.

Well, I think Trump's got a couple of issues.

Firstly, I mean, he never likes to project weakness, but America is looking pretty frustrated in Iran.

However, I think he'll want to put a brave face on it in China.

He doesn't want to look like he's losing this war.

If China can help deliver the Iranians in some way, then obviously America would be very interested in doing that.

On the other hand, if the price of that is an enlarged Chinese role in the Middle East, there'll be some in Washington who would hesitate about that.

Well, look, I think anything that comes out of the Chinese-American summit is meaningful in one sense, in that these are the two most powerful countries in the world.