Sharp China: The PLA Purges One Week Later; World Leaders Flock to Beijing; A Trump-Xi Phone Call; Panama Canal Resolution?

This episode of Sharp China is outside the paywall. Show Notes: On today’s show Andrew and Bill begin with follow-up thoughts on the purges at the top of the PLA, including reactions to a New York Times piece on Xi’s “paranoia,” answers that have yet to materialize, He Weidong suicide rumors, and various theories on what any of this might signal. From there: Keir Starmer’s trip to Beijing, caution before drawing too many conclusions from the recent steps from Canada and the U.K., and a flurry of stories about Xi's ambitions for the RMB as a global reserve currency. At the end: Parsing the readouts from a surprise Trump-Xi call Wednesday, why Taiwan arms sales may have been at issue, the U.S. gets serious about critical minerals, Panama deals a blow to China, and Nvidia’s H200 adventures head to the State Department.You can listen to the podcast in the app:Or click here for instructions to add the podcast to your preferred player. To subscribe to Sinocism, click here.To subscribe to Stratechery, click here.And if you enjoy this podcast please share it far and wide:Related Readings:Uruguay President in China; Document No. 1; Development of future industries; Building a financial power; Fighting deflation; Zhang Youxia; 2026 GDP -- SinocismXi meets Starmer; Services consumption work plan; Soccer corruption; Nvidia and China -- SinocismRuptures in China’s Leadership Could Be Due to Paranoia and Power Plays -- NYTChina’s Xi, Now Alone Atop His Military, Is the Sole Voice in Tackling Taiwan -- WSJThe Unsettling Implications of Xi’s Military Purge -- Foreign AffairsXi the Destroyer -- Foreign AffairsThe Scorpion and the Frogs -- Sharp TextLIVE with Bill Bishop: The world order is shifting — and China is moving fast to shape it. -- SinocismBeen spendin’ most their lives livin’ in the free trade paradise -- China ArticlesFollow the Path of Financial Development with Chinese Characteristics and Build a Strong Financial Nation -- QuishiXi speaks with Putin and then Trump; Us convenes critical minerals meeting; H200 sales in limbo; Document No.1 explained - Sinocism Trump, Xi Hold Call as China Warns on Taiwan Arms Sales -- BloombergTaiwan launches firepower hub with US as Beijing steps up military pressure -- SCMPTrump to Launch $12 Billion Critical Mineral Stockpile to Blunt Reliance on China -- BloombergChina Loses a Foothold in Panama -- WSJChina Warns Panama of ‘Heavy Price’ on Court Ruling on Ports -- BloombergNvidia AI chip sales to China stalled by US security review -- FTTo add the Sharp China feed to your preferred podcast player:Click on the “listen on” button and you will see a dropdown with several options. Make sure you are logged into your account when you do it so you get the correct private RSS feed for subscribers. If you have not logged in for a while you can enter your email and then we will send you a login link.The “email link” in the pulldown shown above will send you an email that also makes it easy to set it up in your preferred podcast app on your phone.If you use the Substack app it has a built- in podcast player.Thanks for listening. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sinocism.com/subscribe