“As the trade war between the United States and China kicked back into high gear after a period of tentative détente, it was clear just how vast the gulf of misunderstanding between the two superpowers had become,” the New York Times reports.
“President Trump said that he had been blindsided by China’s new controls on rare earth metals and products made from them, announced earlier in the week, amid what he had called a “very good” relationship in recent months. Chinese commentators insisted that Beijing was only responding to new attacks from the United States, and that Washington was the provocateur, because it had ramped up technological restrictions on China while professing good will.”
“Both sides also seemed convinced that they had the advantage and that the other side had overplayed its hand.”
Wall Street Journal: Four things to know about Beijing’s rare-earths bombshell.
