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Bill Bishop is the author of Sinocism
On today's show Andrew and Bill begin with Taiwanese President Lai Ching-Te designating the PRC a "foreign hostile force," the initial response from the PRC and potential responses to come, rumors surrounding CMC vice chairman He Weidong, and an email wondering about the defense of Taiwan as a core American interest. From there: Sources say Xi Jinping is "angered" by CK Hutchison's deal to sell its ports in Panama, and TikTok talks accelerate as Beijing remains silent on the issue and Oracle heads to Washington to pitch lawmakers on Project Texas 2.0. At the end: Trump says that Xi will visit "soon" but sources tell the FT otherwise, a question about Beijing's reaction to DOGE and Trump 2.0, a question on fentanyl, and a bit more on the memoir of a former Facebook exec.
To email the show: email@sharpchina.fm
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Xi inspects Guizhou; BlackRock-CK Hutchinson ports deal under attack; TikTok; US ceding the global information battlefield — Sinocism
Tensions over Taiwan; EU corruption probe of Huawei; OpenAI rattled by DeepSeek; CK Hutchison deal with BlackRock slammed for "spineless kowtowing" — Sinocism
Taiwan holds combat-readiness drills in response to PLA ‘grey-zone provocations’ — SCMP
Fleet Of Special Barges Suitable For Taiwan Landings — 笑脸男人 on X
Top Chinese Military Official Close to Xi Rumored To Have Been Arrested — Newsweek
Elon Musk on Taiwan and the AI Race — Autism Capital on X
China Is Said to Scrutinize Li Ka-shing’s Panama Port Deal — Bloomberg
China’s Xi Is Angered by Panama Port Deal That Trump Touted as a Win — WSJ
To Save TikTok, ByteDance Must Go — National Review
White House seriously considering deal from Oracle to run TikTok — Politico
Leaked Audio From 80 Internal TikTok Meetings Shows That US User Data Has Been Repeatedly Accessed From China — Buzzfeed News
Was a CCP Influence Operation Behind RedNote’s US Surge? — The Diplomat
Donald Trump says China’s Xi Jinping to visit US in ‘not too distant future’ — FT
Chinese state media celebrates Trump’s cuts to Voice of America and Radio Free Asia — The Guardian
Meta Seeks to Block Further Sales of Ex-Employee’s Scathing Memoir — NYT
Sharp China with Bill Bishop