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President Trump is staking everything on winning by imposing tariffs on China. But the fight threatens to choke off negotiations about other issues like Taiwan, fentanyl, TikTok and more.

The Pentagon and defense contractors are heavily reliant on magnets and rare earth minerals mined or processed in China, which has suspended exports of the materials in an escalating trade war.

Experts say videos are likely an effort by counterfeit manufacturers to take advantage of confusion over tariffs to boost their sales ...

Government’s rapprochement with Beijing may risk national security in wake of British Steel crisis, party members say
Senior Labour figures have urged the government to review Chinese investment in UK infrastructure in the wake of the British Steel crisis, warning that a rapprochement with Beijing could risk national security.
Government officials insisted on Monday the country remained open to funding from Chinese companies even after a dramatic weekend during which ministers of the Scunthorpe steelmaking plant from the Chinese owners, Jingye.

Chinese customs official says trade has diversified away from US in recent years and plays up ‘vast domestic market’
has played down the risk of damage to its exports from ’s , with an official saying the “sky won’t fall”, as stock markets rose amid signs of a retreat on electronics restrictions.
The US president claimed his strategy was working on Monday, with record levels of investment. Addressing reporters at the White House, he continued to threaten new tariffs on pharmaceutical goods.

The deal signed last week between the centre-right CDU and centre-left SPD paves the way for vital investment in Europe’s biggest economy
Some years ago, hundreds of German finance ministry staff dressed in black and formed a giant zero to their boss, Wolfgang Schäuble, as he left office. It was a tribute to Mr Schäuble’s extreme fiscal conservatism, which had delivered Germany’s first balanced budget in the postwar period. Amid resurgent in the Angela Merkel years, the so-called black zero – symbolising a constitutional prohibition on public debt – had gradually acquired cult status.
As a new administration prepares to take power in Berlin, it seems unlikely that human euro signs will welcome the latest politician to take on Mr Schäuble’s former role. But in dramatic fashion, the spending taps are set to be turned on. Via a swiftly staged in the outgoing Bundestag, “” dogma was consigned to history by the chancellor‑elect, Friedrich Merz. The way was thus paved for groundbreaking expenditure on defence, and the overhaul of an economy being left behind in a changed, suddenly menacing world.
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Approach to expanding trade has been castigated for allowing Beijing to invest heavily in vital UK infrastructure
As even Donald Trump was forced to accept in , China is just too big to ignore. And so it is, on a much smaller scale, that yet another UK government is doing several contradictory things at once when it comes to Beijing.
This weekend brought a particularly resonant example. On the one hand, the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, that British Steel’s Chinese owner, Jingye, was to blame for neglect – if not worse – over the fate of the threatened blast furnaces at Scunthorpe.

PM’s spokesperson says ships carrying materials needed by the steel plant have docked in Lincolnshire
Also on the morning media round today was shadow business minister Harriett Baldwin, who endured a torrid time on Sky News while being repeatedly pressed to acknowledge any culpability for the British Steel crisis by the previous Conservative administration that sold the company to current Chinese owners Jingye in 2019.
The MP for West Worcestershire was told the appearance was “a wonderful opportunity for you here right now, with our viewers on Sky News, to say, look, it was a mistake. We understand that, and we support the government. Do you want to do that this morning?”
Well, I think that, you know, I know that it was looked at very rigorously at the time. It was welcomed by the unions. And I think we need to recognise that 2025 is very different from 2019. And we need to focus on the future of this critical national infrastructure in this industry in our country.
I think it’s always got to be a last resort. But, you know, there was a period when the government owned it, before Jingye came in, and so I think you should never have anything off the table, but I think that does need to be a last resort.
It was a deal that was welcomed by the unions and local communities at the time. So can we put that in the past and focus on the future of this critical industry.
I think there’s a general consensus. If you hear the chancellor today talking about investment in our infrastructure, she’s always looking for partnerships with private equity capital. She’s looking for your pension and my pension to be investing in some of these infrastructure.
I think there is always going to be a role for private capital in all of these organisations. And I think it means that there’s less competition in terms of financing for the schools, for the hospitals, which do require exclusive public funding.
These situations are different, which is why this interventionist UK government has an industrial strategy that matches solutions to the problems at hand.
I would contrast the speed with which they [the SNP] can take to social media and take to the airwaves to air their grievances and the speed at which they move to secure Scottish jobs.

Experts say videos are likely an effort by counterfeit manufacturers to take advantage of confusion over tariffs to boost their sales ...

Lin Jian says disagreement between Jingye and British government could deter Chinese investment in the UK

China has urged the British government not to “politicise” the , saying that doing so could deter Chinese companies from investing in the UK.
A spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry said on Monday that Jingye, the Beijing-based owner of British Steel, had acted as a commercial business when it tried to shut down the plant, not as an arm of the Chinese government.

Effects could tip one into recession and undermine other’s fragile economy but prospects for rapprochement are not hopeless
Sky-high tariffs that now hang heavily over US-China trade mean, effectively, that they have declared a trade embargo on each other, normally an act of war. The economic consequences for both will hurt.
The US’s $150bn (£113bn) or so of exports to China will fall away quickly, while China’s $440bn worth of exports to the US may drop by up to 75% over the next 18 months, unless some sort of negotiation happens. No one will be spared the effects.

A generation of Asian American leaders are finding their own ways to fight for change in New Haven – whether through organization, public service or community-building. Some found their way to Yale ...