The Democratic Party platform states that Washington will work to “avoid a costly spiral to conflict and seek to identify new areas where the United States and China may be able to work together, such as setting guardrails on the safe usage of artificial intelligence” (p. 81).

From Andres Schipani’s fascinating new piece “The core goal of the Lobito Corridor is to create the quickest, most efficient route for exporting critical minerals from the central African copper belt and on to the U.S. and Europe.” ft.com/content/cb2823…

.Susan Rice observed yesterday that America’s “principal challenge is to compete with China without that competition spilling into conflict,” noting that bilateral cooperation is “harder than it used to be but still absolutely essential” (21:11-57). youtube.com/watch?v=JXDyuW…

.Andy Kim “[A]ll of us are caretakers for our great republic. We can heal this country, but only if we try.” nytimes.com/2024/08/21/wor…

“The last U.S. national security advisor to visit China was Susan Rice in 2016....The high-level visit by Sullivan to China could potentially set the ground for another face-to-face meeting for Biden with Xi.” apnews.com/article/biden-…

An important reminder from Brian Deese: “In 2022, U.S. goods and services trade with China amounted to over $750 billion. It is not practicable to decouple from any major economy, let alone the United States’ third-largest trading partner.” foreignaffairs.com/united-states/…

A fascinating account of the “strategic channel” between Jake Sullivan and Wang Yi, which, Demetri explains, “has been a shock absorber that officials say has helped cut the risk of a miscalculation by both nations” ft.com/content/c62ca8…

.rick waters on high-level diplomacy between the United States and China: “These talks are more like caring for a garden: If you don’t do it constantly, something bad will happen.” gzeromedia.com/news/watching/…

The United States and China are “planning for a leader-level call in the coming weeks” and “planned to hold a theater commander telephone call in the near future.” whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/…

A former senior U.S. official tells Alex Ward: “The vice president really trusts him. He’s the last person in the room with her before she’s the last person in the room with the president.” wsj.com/politics/natio…

With strategic competition between the United States and China intensifying across multiple domains, the next U.S. administration should develop the “strategic channel” that Jake Sullivan and Wang Yi have cultivated, using it more frequently and expanding its remit.

Congratulations on your extraordinary “Chaguan” run, David Rennie 任大伟. I’m excited to read and learn from your new column.

#FF My friend Neysun Mahboubi directs the Penn Project on the Future of U.S.-China Relations. He’s doing vital work to cultivate America’s next generation of China scholars and advocate for greater people-to-people exchanges between Washington and Beijing. global.upenn.edu/global-initiat…

.Yangyang Cheng’s eloquence never ceases to amaze; nor does her ability to weave together personal reflections and political insights. chinabooksreview.com/2024/08/22/riv…

.Liz Goodwin observes that “candidates [are] locked in lengthy back-and-forth battles over which of them is more connected to China. There have been 171 campaign ads for congressional or presidential candidates mentioning China so far this cycle.” washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/…

Important reminder from Evan A. Feigenbaum: “Asia’s economic order is not in fact bipolar, and third countries have banded together to write important rules and set regulatory, engineering, and business process standards.” forbes.com/sites/evanfeig…

Fantastic news, Katrina Northrop! The The Washington Post is very lucky to have you on board.

.Alan Beattie concludes that the “resilience [of global trade] is down to two factors: the fluid adaptability of multinational companies and the pragmatic governments that have declined, so far, to take sides [between the United States and China].” ft.com/content/611a48…