Highlights of This Month’s Edition • Bilateral trade: The U.S. goods deficit with China totaled $32.8 billion in July, down 11 percent year-on-year. • Bilateral policy issues: The United States and China agreed to resume trade negotiations following a month of tariff escalations; new rounds of tariffs will hit consumer goods the hardest; after months of propping up its value, China’s government allows the currency to weaken to 7 RMB against the U.S. dollar, leading the U.S. government to label China a currency manipulator. • Policy trends in China’s economy: Provincial fiscal data from the first half of 2019 reveal that the tax cuts and stimulus spending Beijing has deployed since the beginning of year have stretched local governments’ ability to balance their budgets; however, Beijing appears unlikely to change course and is preparing to approve another round of infrastructure bonds in December. • In focus – China’s surveillance technology: China’s surveillance technology sector has evolved from making basic equipment to a robust ecosystem spanning cloud computing and artificial intelligence.

Highlights of This Month’s Edition • Bilateral trade: U.S. goods deficit with China reached $87 billion in Q2 2019, down 8 percent year-on-year; U.S. Q1 2019 services trade surplus with China fell for the first time since 2006. • Bilateral policy issues: President Trump announced new tariffs on Chinese goods effective September 1, citing China’s failure to make large purchases of U.S. agricultural goods and curb the flow of fentanyl to the United States; the WTO issued a mixed ruling on China’s challenge of U.S. calculation of tariffs on certain Chinese goods; the Trump Administration issued a memorandum calling out WTO standards on developing country status for China and others. • Quarterly review of China’s economy: China’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 6.2 percent in Q2 2019 as stimulus deployed earlier in the year wore off; escalating trade tensions also hurt industrial profits as export growth collapsed, prompting fears about employment stability. • Policy trends in China: In an approach different from the recent takeover of Baoshang Bank, China’s financial regulators assisted the struggling Bank of Jinzhou by facilitating investment from three state-run investment firms; trading began on China’s new technology trading platform, but performance has been uneven.