Iran. North Korea. Taiwan. China's diplomatic overtures extend well beyond the Middle East ahead of the Trump/Xi summit. “Beijing’s diplomacy is designed to send a message to the White House."
https://t.co/nm6ywJJcrH via @WSJ
Nine years ago in Beijing, Trump offered to help Xi negotiate the status of Taiwan-an idea Beijing dismissed as the naive bluff of a political novice. Today, Xi is taking Trump’s ambivalence about Taiwan more seriously. with @learyreports 🧵https://t.co/Phis4bNw6E via @WSJ
Always hilarious to read China's transcripts of Trump-Xi calls because you can always find these incredibly sophisticated classical Chinese references with layers of implied meaning that you just know completely went over Trump's head.
It's like Xi is speaking to Trump as if addressing a fellow scholar of classical statecraft and the guy is like "so we're doing 25 Million Tons of soybeans for next season, that's a lot of beans folks!"
This time it's particularly funny because the Chinese transcript (https://t.co/C1cRm5NOYH) has Xi telling Trump: "It is always right to do a good thing, however small, and always wrong to do a bad thing, however small."
This proverb might not sound like much but it's actually extremely meaningful when you understand the reference.
Those are in fact the parting words of Liu Bei, the legendary emperor of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms era, to his son and heir Liu Shan right before dying. The original text is this:
"Do not do a bad thing because it is small; do not neglect a good thing because it is small. Only through wisdom and virtue can one earn the allegiance of others." ("勿以恶小而为之,勿以善小而不为。惟贤惟德,能服于人" - Wù yǐ è xiǎo ér wéi zhī, wù yǐ shàn xiǎo ér bù wéi. Wéi xián wéi dé, néng fú yú rén)
Why did he say this? Two reasons:
1) Because his son Liu Shan was notoriously mediocre in ability and weak in character. The meaning is basically: I don't ask you to be brilliant but at least please maintain basic moral standards because the stakes are too high.
2) The Kingdom - Shu Han - had very unstable foundations, beset by threats both internal and external. Internally, national strength was severely depleted and popular confidence shaken by military defeat. Externally, the powerful states of Wei and Wu (the other 2 kingdoms of the "Three Kingdoms") loomed. Liu Bei, who had risen from nothing through benevolence and moral authority, knew that if his heir couldn't at least hold the line on basic decency, the whole edifice would crumble.
The outcome, as you'd expect, was that what his father told him completely went over Liu Shan's head. Shu Han collapsed.
Liu Shan's nickname was "Adou" (阿斗) and, to this day, his name is synonymous with hopeless incompetence with the very famous idiom "Adou who cannot be propped up" ("扶不起的阿斗", Fú bù qǐ de ādǒu). When you tell someone in China that he is an "Adou", it's very insulting.
Now, to be fair, even most Chinese wouldn't get this reference from the transcript. To most of them, "It is always right to do a good thing, however small, and always wrong to do a bad thing, however small" is just an idiom. Which is of course meaningful in and of itself when Xi tells this to Trump: it is used in daily life as a way of telling someone to maintain basic decency.
But for those who catch the historical reference it's devastatingly precise. Let's just say Xi's speechwriters earned their salary on this one 😏
The New York Fed reached out to potential trading counterparties at the direction of the U.S. Treasury on Friday for so-called rate checks in the Japanese currency market, fueling speculation about possible intervention
Great to be on @SquawkBoxEurope with @CNBCJulianna and @cnbcKaren discussing the watershed Nvidia deal for Samsung just announced and why this is so important to the South Korea market in this AI Revolution 🔥🏆🐂🎯📺🇰🇷🍿📺👇@CNBC@CNBCi@CNBC
https://t.co/SBaarwEGgT
President Donald J. Trump meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea.
"I think we're going to have a fantastic relationship for a long period of time, and it is an honor to have you with us."
LOL — apparently, the chicken restaurant where Jensen Huang, Lee Jae-yong, and Chung Eui-sun are meeting is called Kkanbu Chicken.
It was reportedly chosen by NVIDIA, and “Kkanbu” is a Korean slang term meaning a close friend, partner, or teammate — it became globally known from the Netflix drama Squid Game, with the line “We’re kkanbu, aren’t we?”
What do you think it means?
President Trump at the 2025 APEC CEO Summit South Korea 🇺🇸🇰🇷
"Together we're solving the challenges that no one before has ever been able to solve... From San Francisco to Seoul... we're strengthening old friendships, forging new bonds... & creating a dramatically better world for our children & generations to come. "
BREAKING: President Trump says that South Korea has agreed to pay the US $350 billion to lower their tariffs.
Trump also says that South Korea has agreed to buy US oil and gas in vast quantities and their investment in the US will exceed $600 billion.
During my first meeting with Finance Minister @SatsukiKatayama of Japan I expressed my strong confidence in the U.S.-Japan alliance.
I was glad to hear her perspectives on fiscal measures, and I highlighted the role of sound monetary policy formulation and communication.
Adm. Paparo 🇺🇸 joined ROK leaders 🇰🇷 in Incheon for the 75th Commemoration of the Incheon Landing.
The anniversary honors the history of the alliance and the shared sacrifice that laid the foundation for today’s partnership. Alongside commemorations, Adm. Paparo met with senior ROK military and government leaders.
#ROKUSAlliance | #WeGoTogether | #FreeandOpenIndoPacific
#southkorea
🔗 Read more: https://t.co/Y5U1Ew8cjz