China and the US can make nice, if not peace

Read the original at South China Morning Post ↗
South China Morning Post · collected 2026-09-25 · by Alex Lo

Quick Summary

China and the United States continue to engage in economic tensions but also recover from near-brink situations due to mutual costs of decoupling. Trade between the two nations decreased by 25.1% last year to $494.6 billion, with American goods exports to China dropping by 26%. The article discusses how despite these conflicts, shared interests necessitate pragmatic cooperation between the superpowers.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-25, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

Before the Xi-Trump summit last week, analysts expected soybeans to be included in tariff-reduced arrangements between China and the U.S., but China excluded them from a tariff-reduction list released on September 28, 2026, despite cutting tariffs on other agricultural goods like corn, wheat, meat, and dairy. This decision disappointed American farmers, such as John Bartman, an Illinois-based soybean farmer who called it "a missed opportunity." U.S. soybeans still face an additional tariff of 10%, which traders say is too high for private crushers to absorb, even as Chinese state buyers have stepped up purchases. Despite this exclusion, both sides agreed to form a trade council to discuss reciprocal tariff cuts on $30 billion worth of products and stabilize economic ties.

Written for “US-China Tariff Cuts Deal” on 2026-10-05, grounded in this article and the 283 other(s) covering the same event.

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
5
claim-shaped sentences
Uncertain
0%
0 of 5 hedged
Leaning
Leans left
of the writing, not the subject · beta estimate
Correction & hedging signals
66.6
corrections and hedging in what we collected; not a measure of accuracy
Outlets on this story
284
Economy/Business
Narrative spread
1
articles carrying this framing
Analyzed 2026-09-25 · how these are computed

Story

📰 US-China Tariff Cuts Deal
Economy/Business · 284 article(s) covering the same event. See how they differ ↓

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Compared with similar articles

This article reads leans left and hedges 0% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
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⚖️ Leans right further right than this 🔴 10% hedged 5 of 49 📰 publisher trust 63
“Both articles describe the same three-day summit between Presidents Trump and Xi in Washington on the same date.”
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⚖️ Leans left 🔴 50% hedged 2 of 4 📰 publisher trust 67
“Both articles discuss a meeting between US President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, indicating it is about the same specific diplomatic encounter.”
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“The articles discuss broader themes about China-US relations but do not describe a single, specific occurrence or meeting.”
The US-China relationship has stabilised but on Beijing’s terms same event · 95%
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⚖️ Leans right further right than this 🔴 20% hedged 1 of 5 📰 publisher trust 67
“Both articles describe the meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, emphasizing their interaction and the state of the relationship.”
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The Hindu
⚖️ Leans left 🔴 7% hedged 3 of 43 📰 publisher trust 60
“Both articles refer to a meeting between the presidents of China and the US in Washington, which took place around the same time (September 23-25, 2026).”
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⚖️ Leans left 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 7 📰 publisher trust 67
“The articles discuss broader themes about US-China relations and cooperation but do not describe a single specific incident or meeting.”
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⚖️ Leans left 🔴 25% hedged 2 of 8 📰 publisher trust 67
“Both articles discuss a meeting between Chinese and U.S. presidents in Washington focused on improving relations and achieving 'constructive strategic stability'.”
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⚖️ Leans right further right than this 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 5 📰 publisher trust 67
“Both articles describe the meeting between Trump and Xi Jinping at the White House on the same day with references to historical cooperation during WWII.”
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Deutsche Welle
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 6% hedged 3 of 48 📰 publisher trust 95
“Both articles refer to a meeting between Chinese and U.S. leaders in Washington this week, discussing ongoing tensions and trade issues.”
Fulfilling earlier US-China agreements is a work in progress as Trump and Xi meet again same event · 85%
Toronto Star
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 34% hedged 13 of 38 📰 publisher trust 63
“Both articles describe a meeting between U.S. President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington, indicating they are reporting on the same specific diplomatic encounter.”

Publisher

South China Morning Post · 1617 article(s) · 4 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 4 correction(s)
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Who wrote this

Alex Lo
8 article(s) here · 0 carrying a prediction
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2026-09-27 · assertive framing · How Beijing is neutralising Washington’s sanctions machine
🔮 The world is not so much embracing China as recoiling from Trump’s US The US is haemorrhaging goodwill around the world, but China will have to build up its own trustworthiness and credibility to win hearts and minds
2026-09-15 · assertive framing · The world is not so much embracing China as recoiling from Trump’s US
🔮 He said that “the Iranians have really survived an attack that almost no other country in the region would be able to survive”.
2026-09-13 · assertive framing · US-Israeli failure to bomb Iran into submission was preordained
🔮 As a strong advocate of the Western model of liberal democracy, Acemoglu, co-recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in economics, may be considered the ideological opposite of the Chinese president.
2026-09-06 · mixed framing · Why China’s shrinking population may be a blessing, not a curse
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2026-09-04 · assertive framing · The US’ dangerous reversion to imperialism in Latin America
Also by Alex Lo
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2026-09-27 · South China Morning Post
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The world is not so much embracing China as recoiling from Trump’s US
2026-09-15 · South China Morning Post
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 8 articles by Alex Lo →

Topics

American Beijing China Washington

Subjects

China GPE · 2× American NORP · 1× Beijing GPE · 1× Washington GPE · 1×

Narrative

Simply put, decoupling is proving ruinously expensive on both sides: two-way goods and services trade fell 25.1 per cent last year to an estimated US$494.6 billion, with American goods exports to China down 26 per cent.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-25
2026-09-25 · South China Morning Post
China and the US can make nice, if not peace · assertive framing

Claims (5 extracted, 0 hedged)

China and the US can make nice, if not peace Outright enmity is too costly for both superpowers. asserted
enmity → make → superpowers
Even without trust, shared interests leave room for pragmatic cooperation Washington and Beijing have spent nearly a decade trading tariffs, export controls and blacklists, with each round threatening rupture. asserted
round → share → rupture
Yet they keep recovering from the brink. asserted
they → recover → brink
As the two presidents met at the White House this week, that pattern was repeating. asserted
pattern → meet → House
Simply put, decoupling is proving ruinously expensive on both sides: two-way goods and services trade fell 25.1 per cent last year to an estimated US$494.6 billion, with American goods exports to China down 26 per cent. asserted
exports → put → China
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