Source: Fortune
Summary
President Donald Trump’s trip to China is seen as an opportunity to reflect on the stakes for business, with the ongoing tariff war cutting U.S.-China trade in goods by 29% last year. China’s innovation leadership is facing challenges at home, including high youth unemployment, rising energy prices, and falling fertility rates. Meanwhile, Boeing is expected to be a big winner on the deal front, with rumors of a sale of 500 aircraft to China’s major carriers. China is also racing to catch up in the AI sector, with cheap open-source language models like Qwen and DeepSeek accounting for nearly 30% of global AI usage.
Our Reading
The numbers tell one story.
Boeing’s potential sale of 500 aircraft to China’s major carriers is a big win for the struggling aerospace manufacturer. China’s debt-to-GDP ratio is over 300%, with most of the debt owed to its own banks and citizens. The risk is not borrowing costs but bad loans to zombie firms. Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg is one of the 17 high-profile CEOs accompanying Trump on this trip. China’s innovation leadership is facing challenges at home, including high youth unemployment and rising energy prices.
That stifles competition at home and raises concerns about dumping and deflation abroad.
Author: Evan Null
