US, China Rhetoric Heats Up as Economic Realities Diverge

The US and China, fresh off a week where their diplomatic and economic differences widened further, face another stretch fraught with opportunities for more divergence in the days ahead.

In the latest example of how trade policy reality rarely matches the political rhetoric flying between Washington and Beijing, President Joe Biden last week issued an order to regulate US investments in some Chinese semiconductor, quantum computing and artificial-intelligence firms.