What is beijing?

China's EV industry growth is best described as entrepreneurs and local officials using personal connections (guanxi) to bypass SOEs and central government regulation, leveraging private and foreign capital, rather than top-down central planning.

“It's not really central planning from Beijing. It was a magical concoction of entrepreneurs and local officials using their Guanchi to dance around giant S so SOES and central government regulation, leverage private and foreign capital and just like be really excellent business people.”

Beijing is expected to use salami-slicing tactics on Taiwan at the Xi-Trump summit, seeking incremental shifts in the overall dynamic rather than any dramatic single concession.

“They are going to do what in the South China Sea we called salami slicing, meaning push a little bit, a little bit, a little bit, and then over time change the overall dynamic.”

China is deliberately avoiding even a rhetorical war with the US over the Ukraine minerals deal, contradicting expectations that Beijing would weaponize it as a neocolonialism narrative.

“China is not looking for a war even a war of words with the United States.”

Beijing's alignment with Russia is framed not as opposition to Ukraine but as a defensive response to US pressure cornering both China and Russia simultaneously.

“Beijing is siding with Russia against the US because the US is pressuring is cornering both Russia and China. so they choose to stay together simply against the United States, not against Ukraine at all, at least for Beijing.”

US restraint over the Strait of Hormuz, per Jordan Schneider, validates Beijing's perception of American casualty aversion and raises miscalculation risk for a future Taiwan scenario.

“This validates a lot of their perceptions of American culture and approach to casualties in the modern era.”