I'm John Bachelors, my friend and colleague Gordon Chang at Gordon G. Chang,

and we're in conversation with our

friend, Charles Burton. And since we last talk, Charles, we've had a yet another appointment made

about trade. Remember, that used to be a big story, as I recall, in 2025, Liberation Day. Well,

there was to be a meeting of the big bosses in Beijing,

Xi Jinping and Donald Trump.

It was postponed from the end of, well, it would have happened now.

It would be happening now.

It was postponed to the middle of May.

What are your expectations, Charles?

I am very concerned about this meeting.

You know, the leader of the Guamindan,

Jundi Wen, is going to China.

And I think that Mr. Xi may use this, you know,

apparent desire on the part of the Taiwan nationalist

to come up with some kind of modus operandi with

the communists as opposed to war, to try and convince Mr. Trump that the United States should

make a statement rejecting the idea of Taiwan independence and some, you know,

concomitantly reducing support for the Taiwanese military.

And this would probably come in exchange for some kind of promises from the Chinese to expand markets, you know, for access to to markets for the US. You know, they would maybe promise to buy more soybeans and stuff like that.

And also a deal on critical minerals, the rare earths that China has a near monopoly over

that the United States is very concerned about.

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