The US may have succeeded in forcing a relocation of supply chains from China, but now that the damage has been done, the Chinese are in no hurry to clinch a deal. Not so for Trump, who has an election to win amid signs of a slowing US economy.
One cannot open a Chinese newspaper these days without seeing a story about corrupt officials being hauled up. Is it, then, the beginning of the cleansing process promised by President Xi Jinping ? It sure is. China's new leadership is speeding up efforts to crack down on corruption, the most prominent example being the recent life sentence for Bo Xilai. But chances are that corruption will continue unless China first undertakes key reforms to reduce private benefits from corruption and increase the perceived costs.