00:00Now, Douglas Bowery is an author and former executive at the U.S.-China Business Council.
00:05He's also a professor at George Washington University joining us.
00:09Now, thanks very much for your time.
00:12I'm wondering what you made of Donald Trump's address in a week where he's also due to meet with President
00:19Xi of China.
00:22Yes, thank you, Sally.
00:23I think that the big takeaway from today is that he's preparing, of course, for this important meeting with President
00:31Xi later in the week.
00:33And these are two presidents who would prefer not to be the skunks who came to the garden party.
00:40In other words, neither one of them wants to boil the water.
00:45And instead, we'll be looking at ways to create a picture of some comedy on these major issues of the
00:55day,
00:56particularly artificial intelligence, which your piece leading into this indicated.
01:01And I think what we'll see there is an interest in stating a series of principles,
01:07principles, but they're not going to get into the specifics because both countries don't want to give the other side
01:13an advantage.
01:15So we'll see some interesting discussions, maybe a way forward.
01:20People like myself will be disappointed, disappointed in the sense that we would like to see these two countries who
01:27are the leaders in AI
01:28and will be for the foreseeable future, actually sit down and talk about some of these important security dilemmas.
01:36And I don't think we're going to see that.
01:38Yeah, I was going to ask you about that because we know that while the two are competitors,
01:43there's a growing push to accept that actually this is bigger than everyone
01:47and there needs to be global cooperation on.
01:50There's something that China is pushing for, something that the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is also very keen on.
01:59It is going to be a big point of discussion at these talks in a few days.
02:04Did you get a sense from Donald Trump that he's in a cooperative mood?
02:09Yes, I think he is going to cooperate.
02:12Remember, he is actually going to the airport, Andrews Air Force Base, to greet President Xi when he arrives the
02:19other day,
02:20which is not an honor that was accorded to him when he visited Beijing some months ago.
02:25So I think he is trying to show an interest in doing things.
02:30But yet, at the same time, he's a lame duck and maybe a lot lamer after the election in November
02:36the 6th.
02:37And President Xi is aware of this.
02:39He knows that he has, President Xi, has the tailwinds after doing this triumphant tour of the BRIC countries
02:48where he's attempting to show that China is a more reliable partner and will be for the foreseeable future,
02:56whereas the United States remains somewhat dangerous and also weakening.
03:01So those are the optics that the two different sides will be looking through.
03:05The world's two most powerful economies have agreed a tariff truce until November.
03:12Do you think extending that truce at the meetings this week is achievable as a goal?
03:17Yes, I think very much that will be one of the tangible takeaways from the visit.
03:23The other tangible takeaways very likely will be some work on this trade board,
03:31which was discussed when President Trump was in Beijing the last time.
03:36And it's supposed to help iron out some of the difficulties in investing in each other's country and also dealing
03:44with disputes.
03:44So we may see some furtherance of progress on that.
03:49We also very likely will see some announcement of purchases of U.S. agricultural goods and possibly purchases of Boeing
03:57aircraft,
03:58things that were promised to be purchased by the Chinese some time ago, but they haven't written the checks yet.
04:04So I think we may see some specifics on that as well.
04:08Thank you so much for your time, Douglas Barry, an author and former executive at the U.S.-China Business Council
04:13and a professor at George Washington University.
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