When 'America First' meets 'China First'

Here & Now Anytime

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4.1 • 953 Ratings

🗓️ 11 May 2026

⏱️ 26 minutes

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Summary

Host Scott Tong is reporting from China this week as President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping prepare for a high-profile summit in Beijing. He joins us from Shanghai to share his first impressions of the country since the last time he was there.

Then, the summit is set for later this week. Senior research fellow Yu Jie from Chatham House explains the power dynamic going into the meeting.

And, Russia held its annual Victory Day parade on Saturday. It was scaled back compared to previous years, with the country's military might displayed not in person but on giant TV screens, out of fear of a possible attack from Ukraine. Nina Khrushcheva, New School professor and great-granddaughter of Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev, details Russian President Vladimir Putin's hold on power.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	WBUR Podcasts, Boston.
0:07.0	It's clear the sanitizing of speech of the internet is more of a thing than years ago.
0:12.8	And what it means is a lot of the only voices left online are the nationalistic ones.
0:19.3	Scott Tong in China, for the first time in years, his first impressions upon returning,
0:26.1	the air is cleaner, but online speech has also been sanitized.
0:45.2	It's Monday, May 11th, and this is here and now anytime from NPR and WBOR.
0:46.4	I'm Chris Bentley.
0:55.4	Today on the show, what does China's Xi Jinping want from his summit with President Trump?
1:00.6	Well, I think there's one thing that Beijing wanted from both United States, as well as the rest of the world, the word of stability. Also, Russian President Vladimir Putin says the war in
1:07.0	Ukraine is potentially coming to an end, but it's unclear what that means on the ground.
1:12.9	Yes, he's certainly weakened, and Russia is certainly weakened. It doesn't mean that it cannot go
1:18.2	in this wounded condition for quite some time. Before we get to Russia, though, our own Scott Tong is in Shanghai ahead of that summit
1:31.3	between Xi and Trump in the Chinese capital Beijing this week. Scott used to live in China,
1:37.4	but it's been more than a decade since he's been back. And he told Deb Becker, it was obvious
1:43.0	how much China has changed in that time as soon as he took a breath.
1:47.8	And my impression, first impression, in Beijing a couple days ago, is my goodness, the air is so good and the sky was blue.
1:55.7	And Beijing, when I was living in China, never had that.
1:58.3	Now, I have asthma.
1:59.7	I have breathing issues, so I noticed this a lot.
2:02.4	Beijing forever was notorious about smog and bad air.
2:06.8	A bunch of Western journalists, they left Beijing a decade ago, moved back to their home
2:10.6	countries because the air was so bad.
	...

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