Trump Meets With China's Xi, Asia's View Of Summit, Trump Targets Law Firms
Up First from NPR
May 14, 2026
President Trump's Beijing summit with President Xi yielded familiar rhetoric over trade and Taiwan, while simultaneously, an appeals court reviews his administration's attempts to penalize law firms for representing political opponents. The events highlight a tension between transactional diplomacy and the executive branch's use of administrative power against internal adversaries.
Key insight: Despite the high-stakes trade negotiation, China and the U.S. issued readouts that completely disagreed on the meeting's content; the U.S. focused on trade and Iran, while China publicly emphasized a warning regarding Taiwan.
