State Department official's comments draw rebuke. After Kiron Skinner, the director of the Office of Policy Planning at the State Department, seemed to characterize U.S.-China competition in racial terms earlier this month, Cheng Li told Newsweek that this framing was deeply misguided.

U.S. and China digging in heels over trade war. Efforts to reach a U.S.-China trade deal hit an impasse in early May, with the United States and China now appearing to gird themselves for a prolonged standoff. "We find ourselves stuck in this dilemma where both sides think they have leverage over the other, and neither appears willing to make the compromises necessary to reach a deal," Ryan Hass told PBS NewsHour. David Dollar echoed this view in an interview with the Associated Press: "I increasingly think that this is going to turn into a long-term trade conflict. We have to entertain the possibility that there is no deal."

Chinese reversals on trade signal domestic concerns? Part of the difficulty in resolving the trade dispute seems to be finding a way for both sides to resolve their disagreements without appearing timid before their respective publics. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Cheng Li explained that the latest developments in U.S.-China trade talks were a window into the psyche of China's political leaders.