For China, President Trump’s moves to loosen chip controls, soften U.S. rhetoric and stay silent on tensions with Japan amount to a rare string of strategic gains.

For China, President Trump’s moves to loosen chip controls, soften U.S. rhetoric and stay silent on tensions with Japan amount to a rare string of strategic gains.

© Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

As Gao Zhen awaits trial in China, his wife and child live in limbo, unable to return to America, sustained by the portraits he fashions from scraps of paper.

Hazardous construction materials, the buildings’ design and a series of safety failures likely enabled the blaze to spread with devastating speed.

China closed off Japanese seafood imports after Japan’s new leader declared strong support for Taiwan. Suddenly, sushi is everywhere on Taiwanese social media.

By withholding soybean purchases and rare-earth exports, China extracted relief from U.S. tariffs and delayed export controls, without conceding much in return.

President Trump and the Chinese leader Xi Jinping are being described as “irreplaceable” and “world class leaders” before a meeting seen as critical for shoring up a trade truce.

In weaponizing its dominance over the crucial minerals, Beijing is using tactics that it once denounced, potentially alienating nations it wants to court.