FinanceAsia interviews Wong MNC Center Executive Director about Trump-Xi summit economic outcomes

On May 26, FinanceAsia published a story emphasizing the economic outcomes of United States (U.S.) President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s summit that ended in mid-May [Webmaster’s Note: on the political outcomes, see this Asian Sentinel piece].  Reported outcomes included inter alia billions in annual agricultural purchases by China, China’s purchase of 200 Boeing airplanes, mutual reductions in tariffs, a stabilization of rare earth mineral exports from China to the U.S., and the establishment of separate Boards of Trade and Investment.  FinanceAsia asked Dr. Blanchard for his thoughts about the Board of Investment, which is supposed to focus on “non-strategic, non-sensitive areas” and the prospects for increased Chinese in the U.S. and American investment flows in China in the wake of the summit.  Dr. Blanchard expressed skepticism about the Board of Investment’s catalyzing effects, doubting it would matter to Chinese investors if its only focus was on “‘non-strategic, non-sensitive areas’” and that it could operate as simply as advertised given that definitions of strategic were fluid as well as context sensitive, potentially requiring classified information for an evaluation. 

The original story is Toh Han Shih, “Major Chinese investments in US unlikely despite Xi-Trump summit,” FinancialAsia,May 26, 2026 and can be located at https://www.financeasia.com/article/major-chinese-investments-in-us-unlikely-despite-xi-trump-summit-analysts/507767.  Copyright remains with the original holder.