This summer, the U.S. has sent top-level officials to China.

There was Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken's high-stakes diplomatic mission to China.

He's the first Secretary of State to visit the country in five years.

There was Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

Our visit comes, of course, at a time of strained relations at best between the two superpowers.

There's this effort right now to try and re-engage between the two countries, to have more

meetings, to have more conversations, and to put a floor under the relationship.

That's our colleague, Andy Durin.

But also at the same time, the U.S. and China are increasingly competitive, increasingly

adversarial, increasingly second-guessing the extent to which they should be trading

and investing with each other.

And this week, the U.S. upped the tension.

President Biden signed an executive order preventing American firms from investing in certain

Chinese technology companies.

The reason?

National security.

Welcome to the journal, our show about money, business, and power.

I'm Kate Leinbaugh.

It's Friday, August 11th.

Coming up on the show, the U.S.-China relationship, is it getting warmer or colder?

Oh, Mackie Dees, give us a fry.

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