U.S. Scales Up Hantavirus Response

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Luke Vargas (0:33)

China's Xi Jinping warns President Trump on Taiwan, underscoring the tensions around a visit Trump had teased as the best summit ever.

Jonathan Cheng (0:42)

It's an honor to be your friend, and the relationship between China and the USA is going to be better than ever before.

Imani Moise (0:49)

Thank you very much.

Alex Ward (0:50)

Thank you.

Luke Vargas (0:51)

Plus, US health officials scale up their hantavirus response, and do college grades even matter when AI makes getting an A easier than ever? It's Thursday, May 14th. I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal, and here is the AM Edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today.

Well, day one of the Trump-Xi summit is underway, and to help us decipher some early signals coming out of the high-stakes gathering in Beijing, I've got journal Beijing Bureau Chief John Cheng and Wall Street Journal National Security Reporter Alex Ward on the line from the Chinese capital. John, Alex, anyone nerding out over this summit will have seen reference in a lot of outlets to the five Bs that the US is seeking progress on this week, among other things setting up a board of trade, selling Boeing planes as well as American beef. But since the real negotiating day is tomorrow, I propose that we look at two P's instead, pageantry and prepared remarks. Jon, pageantry, is it all pomp and circumstance or something actually worth watching?

Jonathan Cheng (2:00)

It is definitely something worth watching because political symbolism is so important in general, but especially to the Chinese leadership. So I think given all of the uncertainty around this summit, whether it would even happen, what date it would happen, who would be there, and yet they have, of course, pulled out all the stops. It hasn't been terribly different from the kind of red carpet treatment that the president got in 2017

You still have the greeting from the honor guard, from young Chinese men and women jumping up and down, and waving flags and flowers. And then you had the two leaders going to the Temple of Heaven. This is a centuries-old temple in central Beijing, where the emperors of China used to go to pray for good harvests. So it has been quite a nice sort of reception, especially if you are Donald Trump, and this is definitely something that he's talked a lot about, looking back to his 2017 trip, and that he seemed to very much be looking forward to.

Luke Vargas (3:01)

Alex, I'm glad that Jon brought up that last trip, because since 2017, China has really grown to be a real superpower. Has that changed anything about how Trump is being received this time around?

Alex Ward (3:11)

Well, actually, I would say the first P, pageantry, leads into what I would offer as a third P, which is power. If there was so much pageantry in the first session, this one is much more about the power that these two countries can, you know, execute together. Their actual opening statements talked about the superpower relationship. Trump, I think at this point, he's not as in charge as he was in 2017 The Iran War is looming. His political prospects are getting weighed down by that war, by a struggling economy. He doesn't really have the upper hand in this. Now he's in she's house. In fact, there's already the clip of reporters asking Trump about Taiwan after she released this statement giving some stark warning about the Taiwan issue.

Trump was uncharacteristically quiet. And that, I think, gives some insight into a couple of things. One, the politics of the issue. Two, the general sensitivities of Trump maybe not wanting to upset his host. But three, about Trump loves to wax poetic and be extemporaneous. And in this case, he's being very measured. So I think this gives us a sense of, while Trump is enjoying himself, he doesn't really have the luxury of being overly fetid. Because one, of his standing. And two, I think also how China feels about years of tension. 2017 was the year in which the US really changed policy towards China, made it much more antagonistic. Trump is now switching back to try to make it more friendly. But China has not forgotten the last decade.