Trump Promised to Be Tough on China. Xi Outplayed Him. | China Decode
912 segments
For the first time ever, the Chinese
leader had the upper hand in this
summit. And the potentially
game-changing outcome was that the US
and China are now trying to work
together to put into place what China
calls a constructive China US
relationship of strategic stability.
>> Welcome to China Decode. I'm Alice Han.
>> And I'm James King.
>> In today's episode of China Decode,
we're discussing the postgame analysis
of the Trump Xi Summit, what Apple,
Tesla, and Nvidia stand to gain after
the trip, and the infusion of technology
and creativity that Chinese companies
are bringing to this year's GAN Film
Festival in France. That's all coming
up. But first, let's do a quick check-in
with how the Chinese markets are
starting the week. On Monday, the
Shanghai Composite Index ticked up 0.2%.
Standout stocks including Narrow
Technology, a semiconductor equipment
firm up 4.9% and Hagong Tech up 10% with
positive signals through the AI and
semiconductor sectors. The Shenzhen
component rose 0.3%.
Retail sales sharply eased to 0.2%
year-on-year growth in April, marking
the weakest growth since December 2022.
Industrial output also slowed to 4.1%
yearonear, the softest pace since July
2023.
All right, let's get into it. We're
still decompressing from last week's big
summit between US President Donald Trump
and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Both
leaders left the event after trading
praise and touting massive progress in
stabilizing what they agreed is the
world's most important bilateral
relationship. Trump hailed fantastic
trade deals and said a lot of different
problems quote unquote were settled.
Although no major agreements or
breakthroughs were announced before he
departed Beijing, Taiwan and Iran loomed
large over the talks, but much of the
trip seems centered around economic and
business related progress between the
two nations. James, we have been talking
about this at length. We had a Substack
live video about this as well. How do
you perceive the this summit? What are
the main takeaways? And what do you
think we should expect after this main
summit?
>> Yeah, I find myself slightly at odds
with I think conventional wisdom on
this. Uh, a lot of the news reporting
has called this things like the
stalemate summit. Uh, others have called
it a nothing burger, but I think those
are very much missing the mark. Uh, to
me this summit was important. There was
one what I would call historic aspect
and there was one potentially
gamechanging outcome. I think the
historic aspect was that from my
perspective for the first time ever the
Chinese leader had the upper hand in
this summit and the potentially
game-changing outcome was that the US
and China are now trying to work
together to put into place what China
calls a constructive China US
relationship of strategic stability. I
know that's a bit of a mouthful, but to
me that means they're trying to climb
down from a situation in which China and
the US are constantly adversarial in
their relationship and moving towards a
much more stable relationship. And I
think one of the pointers towards this
is that Trump invited Cining to visit
the US in September this year and Sigin
Ping has agreed to go. So there's a
measure of continuity there. Um I think
quite a lot of people will be will be
wondering whether or not this really was
a historic summit. Um and uh in the
sense that I I reckon China had the
upper hand. I think you can see that
from the fact that Trump was trying to
be as friendly as possible. He said to
Cining, "You are a great leader." He
said, "It's an honor to be with you.
It's an honor to be your friend." The
relationship between China and the US is
going to be better than ever before. And
I think one piece of essential
background has changed a lot in the way
these two countries see each other. And
that is China's enduring chokeold over
rare earth and critical minerals
supplies. These rare earths and these
critical minerals are essential to make
US weapons. The Pentagon needs them. US
arms manufacturers need them and so do
all the big US tech companies, many of
which were on the plane with Trump. The
other thing is, of course, that the US
needs China to some extent to help
resolve the war in Iran. We don't know
whether China will play ball in that
regard, but uh it's it seems clear that
Washington thinks it might need China.
So that's why I come to the conclusion
that this was the first US China summit
ever where China appeared to have the
upper hand. The second point about
stability, I guess we can we can
discuss, Alice, but how did you see it?
I mean, how how did you see the
interplay? Did you think it was
important or did you think it was a a
nothing burger as some people say? Well,
just very very quickly, I've been
watching all the videos in terms of
their interaction and I think uh
President Xi knew how to play that
relationship very very well. You he was
speaking to the right audience when in
his banquet speech, the state banquet
speech over dinner, he said that the
great rejuvenation of the nation, which
is a big slogan of his, can go
handinhand with make America great
again. And I thought it was very smart
and apt of him to link these two
narratives that these countries have
about their greatness together to say
that effectively he and Trump are uh you
know singing from the same choir sheet
and effectively I think it is reviving
this G2 relationship that China wants to
see and the global stage. But to bring
it slightly away from the personal, uh,
I want to sort of talk a little bit
about what has happened in the last few
days since the summit, since Trump has
left. And it's always very helpful to
compare notes in terms of the two sides
of readouts, Washington versus Beijing.
Washington's White House readout made it
very clear that China had agreed to a
number of things which still the Chinese
haven't confirmed. So just to run
through them very very quickly, the
Chinese according to the White House
have agreed to purchase 200 Boeing
aircraft. Now there is slightly down
from the 500 that is what is originally
speculated. China has also agreed
according to the White House to purchase
at least 17 US billion per year in a
products in 2026, 2027 and 2028. And
that's on top of the soybean bean deal
that it agreed to late last October. And
China is going to renew the expired
licenses for the 400 or so US beef
facilities. They're going to work with
regulators to import more American beef
and similarly American poultry and that
the Chinese will help uh the US address
its concerns with regards to critical
minerals and rare earth supply
shortages. So some of these rare like
scandium, neodymium which have do have
um relevance for uh defense related
applications from the Chinese side and I
think this is interesting. There is uh
an acknowledgement of the US uh
purchases the purchases of US Boeing
aircraft. There is an acknowledgement in
terms of a resumption of some level of
beef imports uh as well as a imports not
but no specification as to the size and
the and the scale. Uh and then I thought
this was interesting. The Chinese
readout suggested that the two sides had
agreed that they would expand two-way
trade including in agricultural products
and that they would cut tariffs in
mutually sensitive areas. It suggests to
me as is often the case uh that the two
sides have very different
interpretations or takeaways from the
meeting. the American side is very keen
to help American business in particular
American a American aviation company in
the form of Boeing and and to help um
you know plug the holes in the supply
chains when it comes to critical
minerals on the Chinese side I feel is
that they're more interested in the two
boards the board of investment and board
of trade and and in you know renewing
and expanding those two dialogues in
terms of a reducing tariffs which
obviously didn't come out of the summit
and B expanding the opportunity set for
Chinese companies to set up a shop and
invest in American manufacturing. What
is also interesting is what is missing
from the two readouts. So there's no
discussion about chip export bans being
wound down uh and similarly no uh
discussion about the tariff levels.
Right? So that's what's happened in the
last few days. Uh keen to get your take
on it. But I think we can I at least
from my vantage point Trump got the some
of the business deals that he wanted.
The Chinese got further summitry and an
expansion of discussion around some of
the more strategic areas like tariffs
like investment and maybe in the future
chips.
>> I completely agree Alice. I think you
know after these summits it's always
really rewarding to look at the contrast
of the two communicates and uh these two
communicates contrast quite a bit as
you've just mentioned I think the key
contrast is something that you've
already uh mentioned a little bit and
that is the rare earths the Chinese did
not mention rare earths or critical
minerals at all and yet the US put this
pretty much you know at the top of the
of one of leading sections in the White
House fact sheet. Um, this to me means
that first of all, as we mentioned, the
US really wants these rare earths. They
are essential for the production of
American weapons. Um, but it also means
I think uh that the Chinese are holding
back. They are I'm not saying the
Chinese will not supply these rare
earths, but they're going to use them as
leverage. They're going to use them as
bargaining chips to ensure that the US
does more on China's big ask which
Cining was very clear about right at the
beginning of the summit and that is
Taiwan. Exactly what China wants from
the US on Taiwan. We don't really know.
But if past is prologue, then certainly
China will be hoping that the US either
reduce sharply or scrap or postpone some
of the big US arms sales to Taiwan or
maybe in the future the US works towards
coming up with a form of words that more
closely reflects China's view of its
disagreements with Taiwan, particularly
on the issue of sovereignty. So I think
that China is using the rare earth choke
hold to try to you know put pressure on
the US to get something on its most
important topic. Um now on the issue as
you've mentioned on the the trade and
investment councils I do think that this
is quite key as I said at the top there
is this uh Chinese phrase of putting the
relationship onto a new footing that of
a constructive uh relationship of
strategic stability and I think these
two uh councils as China called them or
as the US is calling them the US China
board of trade and the US China Board of
Investment. I think these are crucial to
this um initiative of trying to reduce
some of the differences, reduce some of
the tension that we see between the US
and China on trade and investment
issues. And uh some people are poo
pooing this. Some people are saying this
is not important. It's just a form of
words. There's no sincerity behind it. I
completely disagree. I think this is
important and I think both sides want to
do this because both sides need
something from the other. In the case of
the US, it's rare earth to make weapons
and in the case of China, it's some
movement from the US on Taiwan aside
from other issues of course. So I think
that there is impetus for the two to try
to work together to reduce their
differences.
>> Really interesting. And and just to add
one final word on some of these
geopolitical issues, Taiwan and Iran,
there wasn't apart from the Chinese
statement about their red line when it
comes to Taiwan. There wasn't any major
readout about the Taiwan issue.
Similarly, there has been no indication
as of yet as to whether or not uh Trump
and the American administration will go
ahead with the 11 billion uh arm sales
agreed to last December to Taiwan. Uh
and similarly on the Iran issue, we
heard a China that was very mum and
reluctant to say anything about Iran. Uh
but the US was keen to document the fact
that China and the US agree that peace
uh in the Middle East and a resolution
to the straight of Hormuz is in each
other's best interests. But I I come
away from this summit feeling like a
nothing burger on the geopolitical
issues. Right.
>> Yeah. I think I think on Iran it was the
dog that didn't bark. Um the the US was
pretty clear. Trump even said in front
of Cinping in televised remarks that the
US was determined that Iran would not
develop a nuclear weapon. The Chinese
side was completely silent about that
both in that meeting between C and Trump
but also in the in the following
statements after the summit. So I think
we can take that as a point of
disagreement or at least China is not
willing to say anything about Iran and
nuclear weapons at this point. So it
doesn't sound to me like there was a
great meeting of minds on Iran. It could
also be the case that China is holding
this in reserve to use it again as
leverage uh in the future.
>> Yeah. So it seems like they've agreed to
disagree but put those two issues in the
back burner. If you missed it, we did
our first Substack live stream last
week, breaking down all things Trump
Summit, joined by Kevin Shu, author of
the interconnected Substack. To check
out all the insights on the meeting,
robotics, Taiwan, and more, watch the
replay on Substack now. And we're going
to be doing more of these exclusive live
streams for our subscribers. So, make
sure you get signed up to ProfG Plus at
chin decode.profia.com.
We'll be back with more on the CEO
presence at the summit after a quick
break. Stay with us.
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Welcome back. We haven't touched much
yet on the economic and commercial
aspects of the Trump X she summit, but
it was notable that over a dozen US
executives were part of the delegation
to China, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk
and Nvidia CEO Jensen Hang, who both
traveled with the US president on Air
Force One. The CEOs became a bit of the
main story themselves. Here's Jensen
Huang enjoying himself around town in
Beijing after the official meeting
concluded. James, I actually have to say
that I've been doomcrolling a lot of the
videos of Jensen Huang going on his
little food foodie journey throughout
Beijing. He's eating a lot of things
like mishing, which is a type of, you
know, bubble iced tea. He's also eating,
which is a type of Chinese noodle. Uh,
and I see him eating some squid
tentacles. Um, having some fermented
soybean milk. And and what was actually
interesting to me is to see ju just the
level of affection that he has amongst
everyday Chinese on the street. You can
see that in the way they interact with
him and even in the way that the stores
immediately after he's come almost as if
to bless each store, they have a photo
of him or some new drink or some product
that is named after him. That I think
suggests to me that Jensen Huang's charm
offensive has worked out. He's probably
been the most effective uh CEO in the
delegation in terms of charming uh the
Chinese. Uh and you know, some netizens
have been commenting on the fact that
he's been the hardest working of the
delegation because he's been here the
longest and doing his homework on China,
which I thought was uh pretty apppropo,
but it speaks to a I think a broader
insight, which is that Jensen really
needs to get the Chinese on board.
They're the hold up when it comes to the
import of H200s. The US has just
announced that 10 Chinese suppliers can
get access to H200's from Nvidia
including Alibaba and Bite Dance,
Lenovo. But the real bottleneck is
Beijing, right? So I wanted to ask you a
broader question as to who were the
winners and losers, but in particular
the winners that you think at the CEO
delegation and what does that say about
American business interest in China? I I
really like your descriptions of Jensen
Huang going around Beijing eating all
kinds of uh Chinese food. I think uh he
looked like he was enjoying himself. And
did you see that clip of him when he was
walking around Shushahai in central
Beijing, which is a beautiful scenic
lake area. I was there about a month and
a half ago myself. And a Chinese
reporter rushed up to him and said, "How
do you like China?" And he said, "I love
China." I thought I mean it was just a
it was just a oneliner but it it it
really said a lot to me. He is the $5
trillion man. Um I'm talking of course
about the Nvidia uh well uh market
capitalization of Nvidia shares hovering
around5 trillion right now. So he is the
US's biggest businessman and he's
actually uh well he runs the world's
most valuable company. So it is a a a
big barometer of US China relations as
to what's happening with Nvidia chip
sales to China. And I thought, you know,
he came out with a phrase in an
interview recently. He said, you know,
uh, Nvidia had a 90 some odd percent of
the world's market share. But today in
China, we have dropped to zero. And this
is obviously because of the US bans on
on Nvidia selling advanced chips to
China. You've just mentioned the fact
that as we understand it about 10
Chinese companies have received US
commerce department authorization uh to
buy Nvidia's H200 artificial
intelligence chips. Uh but so far we
haven't seen any shipments to China and
it's not clear whether or not the
Chinese are allowing their companies to
buy these chips. It's possible that
China will hold out on this and just not
allow uh Chinese companies to buy Nvidia
chips. Or maybe China's holding out for
the even more advanced Blackwell chips
also made by Nvidia holding out for them
to be exported to China. So we just
don't know at the the situation at the
moment. But one thing is very clear that
is that Nvidia the world's most valuable
company is having a really rough time
trying to sell its env advanced chips to
China and that's why Jensen Huang was on
such a charm offensive and as you said
certainly an effective charm offensive
when it comes to popular opinions of him
uh in China. I would say it seems to me
vitally important for Nvidia's prospects
as a company as to whether or not it can
actually start selling its Invad chips
again to China.
>> You say he's a 5 trillion man and just
to get a sense of how important the
Chinese market is. You know, by some
estimates we'll have a $5 trillion
market for robotics worldwide by 2030.
China dominates well over half of all
robotics is done by China. So if you
just think about what that could mean
for Nvidia, I mean it could be at least
another trillion dollar that he could
add to his name if he can get the
Chinese market because you know as we
discussed previously James, China's
going all in on robotics and there's a
lot in terms of um chip technology that
Nvidia can bring to bear for that
robotics uh roll out
>> completely. Um, so you know, whatever
time and effort um, Jensen Hang is
spending on his charm offensive could be
repaid massively. Uh, depending on what
the Chinese government decides to do. I
mean, the important thing about this now
is that I don't think it the ball is in
America's court. I think the ball is now
in the court of the Chinese regulators
whether they allow Nvidia uh, chips to
come in because China in the meantime
has had all kinds of workarounds. The
main ones are Huawei's Ascend series of
chips being put onto superclusters,
these massive racks of of 15,000 chips
or half a million chips or next year
we're told a million chips to try to
work around the need that China
currently has for very advanced chips
such as the ones that Nvidia makes. So,
so that's really something to watch. You
mentioned Elon Musk as well. Again, you
know, Elon Musk obviously a massively
powerful businessman in the US and and
you know, with an extraordinary global
stature, but in China, he needs China
very much indeed. At the moment, he's
seeking clearance from Chinese
regulators to expand the adoption of
Tesla's full self-driving assistance
system. So, that's one thing he needs.
He's also hoping to buy apparently about
$2.9 billion US worth of equipment uh
for manufacturing solar panels from
Chinese suppliers. So he needs China for
that too. You know, I I thought it was
interesting. I'm sure you've seen the
videos of of uh Elon Musk and his young
son uh going through I think it was the
Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Um
that was kind of touching on his behalf.
I guess that was a bit of a charm
offensive, too, would you say?
>> Well, I'm not sure if Elon was intending
that to be a charm offensive. I don't
think he's as deliberate as Jensen
Huang. Uh, but my funny observation was
when he was at the state banquet and
Leen, the the CEO and founder of Xiaomi,
uh, you know, which is a major
smartphone company, but now they're
expanding into cars and and and
elsewhere, uh, he wanted to take a
selfie with Elon, and Elon obviously
wasn't keen. You can see that on on his
face. And then the other thing that I
thought was really interesting uh was
that the only woman sat at that table
which was the main table uh where the
leaders were at uh was Joel Trenfe who
is the CEO and founder of lens
technology and she was the only woman
there. She's a powerhouse and really
built um this company from scratch and
they build the, you know, advanced
screens that are used in all iPhones,
tablets, but also in Tesla dashboards as
well. So, you know, I thought that that
was super interesting that she was there
because remember it's not just these US
CEOs that are trying to sell into the
Chinese market. They're also using China
for production, right? So, as we
discussed previously, China's share in
in global iPhone production is around
74%. That's still pretty pretty
significant. It means three out of every
four on average iPhones are still made
in in China. Uh and and Tesla still
requires a lot of Chinese manufacturing
inputs. I I saw and toured a place um
near um Hungjol where they specialize in
these uh advanced light but also uh
durable tires that are used in in
Teslas. Uh and apparently Tesla in its
newest models is unable to find anything
comparable to this kind of special alloy
wheel that is manufactured in Hul. So,
you know, I think that's worth
mentioning is that for a lot of these
CEOs, they they don't just want to sell
to the market. They also want to be able
to ensure that they can still get access
to Chinese inputs, intermediate inputs.
>> Yeah, I really like the way you've
highlighted Joe Fay. I think that is
such an important example. It shows
first of all, you know, the supremacy of
the Chinese supply chain. the fact that
China can make pretty much anything uh
of very high quality, cheaper and faster
than anywhere else in the world. But
also I I like the Joe Fay story because
she built herself up from nothing. She
started life as a migrant worker working
on the production line. She had almost
no formal education. She was when she
was a worker, she studied at night to
became self-taught to teach herself
enough technology to become, you know,
um in in the technology industry as she
is now. I mean, it's amazing. She is
really the embodiment of the American
dream as well as the Chinese dream. You
know, she made it from nothing. And I
think that's uh that that's such an
important um example of what China's all
about. Right at the other end of the
spectrum, just to to round it out, I was
interested by Goldman Sachs. Goldman
Sachs is a different case. I'd say in
the case of Jensen Hang and Elon Musk,
they both need a lot from China. Goldman
Sachs also needs a lot from China, but
it's playing a uh another charm
offensive game. It recently issued a dim
sum bond. Uh these are China's offshore
bonds. It's borrowed about 47 billion
remimb in remimb debt so far in 2026.
This is going to ingratiate it to the
Chinese government quite a bit. And as
far as we understand, Goldman needs
access to the Chinese market. Uh it
wants access to the retail and
institutional investors to manage their
wealth and assets. And of course given
China's rise and its uh yearly GDP
growth, the number of uh of investors
are growing sharply. So Goldman has also
got its its eyes on the prize. It's
trying to do the right thing by the
Chinese government, do the right thing
by the Chinese regulators so that it
gets the approval it needs to appeal to
more and more Chinese investors.
>> Yeah. And and probably on the other side
of this uh is Meta, right? Meta tried to
buy Manis which was this agentic AI
platform originally doiciled in China
now doiciled in Singapore but that has
been cancelled effectively by the
Chinese regulators because they do not
approve the sale of of a Chinese
originated uh AI company to Silicon
Valley. So I thought it was interesting
that Meta went anyway because I remember
the heyday you know over 10 years ago
when Mark was going to China and he was
very keen on the Chinese market. Since
then they've taken another attack which
is to see China as the enemy somewhat
especially the Chinese applications like
bite dance. So I thought it was
interesting that they were there not
clear to me what they were trying to do.
Maybe they were trying to ingratiate
themselves to the regulators again or or
or try to improve their profile in in
mainland China. But I thought that that
was super interesting. Okay, let's take
one last quick break. Stay with us.
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Welcome back. We'll head now to France,
another place where China is increasing
its influence. This time at this year's
Gan Film Festival, arguably the most
prestigious film festival in the world.
The China Pavilion is in its fifth year
at GAN and China Night was a gala
evening hosted last week at the start of
the festival meant to celebrate Chinese
cinema and culture. The event featured
previews of upcoming Chinese films,
celebrations of the country's artistic
traditions, and perhaps most
importantly, demonstrations of new
technology that are changing how Chinese
creators make content and how audiences
absorb that content. It's coming at a
time where you've got a lot of
conststonation and excitement about
Chinese video platform AI capabilities.
FT just ran a piece that was super
interesting looking at how uh the
Chinese video AI models are far
outpacing the American ones. So Cance
and Happy Horse for instance are doing
just better across number of metrics
than what you see out of uh Twitter or
Google or even Facebook. Uh and at the
same time there is a new uh TV show
called Pursuit of Jade in Chinese that
was the first time in history that a
Chinese TV show has reached the level of
being in the top 10 of of global
non-English content on Netflix. I sense
that after co and we've had to wait a
couple of years we are going back to
aspects of really I feel like the early
2010s
where there was a lot of global
enthusiasm about Chinese culture you
know in terms of film in terms of music
in terms of art and you know from co and
then a couple years after that it was
really I would say cloistered away the
west wasn't as interested in China
wasn't as interested in in showing its
culture. But I sense a big shift that's
happening whereby Chinese creators and
and the government supporting the
creators are super keen to show the
richness of Chinese culture. Be it from
the traditional Chinese kung fu films to
new new animated films to AI generated
content and at the same time the rest of
the world is more keen to to see it to
appreciate it uh and to share it. And
this, I think, fits in with some of the
previous discussions we've had about
China maxing. Are you a a big Chinese
film buff? And and what do you think
about this turn towards China?
>> Well, um I am a a Chinese film buff, but
I have to say I'm a film buff of yester
year probably. Um I I like the old Jang
Mo films. I was delighted to see that
Gong Lee, who starred in in many of
those Jangimo films, opened the K Film
Festival this year along with Jane
Fonda. I mean to me that just showed how
much China has arrived when it comes to
global box office and China's growing
global influence in film.
>> The interesting thing to me is the
vibrancy of the ecosystem. So the film
industry
is apparently starting to rebound after
the pandemic and you know box office
receipts are already exceeding $1.89
billion this May. This fits into what I
think um was once described to me as a
B2 consumerism in China. But what I mean
by B2 is sort of in China that's the
basement. So two levels down below the
ground floor and that's where you get
your bubble tea and your your cheap
products, dollar stores and whatnot. And
and you know in a time in which people
are more costconscious
going to the cinema can be relatively
cheaper than say you know traveling or
going overseas. So I think people are
going towards that kind of entertainment
that is more affordable and the
government has been pushing it too. So
the government is is apparently claiming
initiatives like turning film sets into
tourist destinations that will
apparently according to the government
generate around $26 billion in revenue
this year. Um the other thing that I I
thought was interesting at GAN was there
was this lady um Tina Ja I believe who's
the head of of Wingite which produces AI
generated film content and she was
saying that the Chinese AI film market
could grow to 15 around 15 billion US
and and you know we haven't gotten to
the minutiae of this but um in China
they're advancing way beyond just film
and TV shows there's a lot of short form
content that basically people watch
completely on the equivalent of Tik Tok.
So doing uh and there's also now
increasingly more AI generated content
with China really pulling ahead because
a place like Tik Tok can command and
have a database of of if so much more
content you know video content than than
even Instagram does just because of its
user base and the user generated content
scale. So, I think it's an exciting time
to be in film, you know, after a long
hiatus. All right, James, you know what
time it is. It is prediction time. As
you peer into the future this week, what
do you see?
>> Okay, I'm sticking with the film topic.
Um, as I was researching for this piece
on film, I thought, when are we going to
see the highest grossing actor in the
world as Chinese? I'm going to stick my
neck out, Alice, and say that within
five years, we're going to see the
highest grossing actor in the world will
be Chinese. So, what I'm really saying
here is the Chinese film market, which
is currently second biggest in the
world, is going to become the biggest
and therefore a Chinese actor is going
to become the highest grossing actor. I
know this isn't out there an out there
prediction. I'm really just trying to uh
dramatize a trend which I think is on
its way which is China's going to be the
world's biggest film market.
>> Really interesting. All right. So mine
is um more gerain to the summit and I
may have mentioned this previously but I
even though a lot of people may disagree
with me I have a strong feeling that
China is going to start to approve H200s
at some point in the coming months. I
think that Jeden Huang is playing his
cards right politically. He's getting a
lot of support domestically from
everyday Chinese people. You see that
across social media, micro blogs. He's a
popular guy in China. Uh and I and I
think I I'm long Jensen Huang. I think
he knows how to play the game between
the US and China. And I think he's one
of the last standing chameans that will
benefit from both sides. So I'm I'm team
Jensen. I think the H200's get approved
by Beijing because also Beijing doesn't
have enough capacity via Huawei and
Smick to to to meet the demands of
compute uh that AI will increasingly
generate.
>> Good call.
>> All right, that's all for this episode.
Thank you for listening to China Decode.
This is a production of Prof Media. Make
sure to follow us wherever you get your
podcast so you don't miss an episode.
Talk to you again next week.
Ask follow-up questions or revisit key timestamps.
The video discusses the Trump-Xi summit, highlighting that China gained the upper hand for the first time, aiming for a 'constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability.' While Washington claimed specific economic agreements, Beijing's readout was less detailed, particularly omitting rare earths, suggesting their use as leverage. The visit of US CEOs like Nvidia's Jensen Huang and Tesla's Elon Musk showcased American business interests in China. Huang's 'charm offensive' was noted as effective amidst Nvidia's challenges in selling advanced chips due to US bans, with China's domestic capacity (e.g., Huawei's Ascend chips) providing alternatives. The segment also covers the significant role of Chinese suppliers like Lens Technology (Joe Fay) in global manufacturing. Finally, the discussion moves to China's increasing cultural influence, particularly at the Cannes Film Festival, with Chinese video AI models outpacing American ones and a growing global appreciation for Chinese culture and film. Predictions include China becoming the world's largest film market and the approval of Nvidia's H200 chips in China.
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