Commentary

CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Cuba this week as the island faces dire fuel shortages. Council Senior Nonresident Fellow Cécile Shea unpacks what the trip signals about the Trump administration's Cuba strategy.

"It provides China with an opportunity to frame itself as a source of prosperity and stability—in contrast to the United States," says Council Distinguished Nonresident Fellow Evan Medeiros.

"The United States needs China to some extent more than China needs us," Council Marshall M. Bouton Senior Fellow for Asia Studies Raymond Kuo tells WGN's The Point.

Americans largely view China as an economic rival seeking global dominance, according to a new Chicago Council-NPR-Ipsos poll.

The Beijing meeting gives the United States an opportunity to push back on a Chinese narrative that worsens the bargaining positions of both Washington and Taipei.

Trump and Xi meet this week with vastly different goals and theories about where the world is going.

"The sort of immediate and urgent crisis is Iran, and it's not the nuclear program, it's the strait," Council President and CEO Leslie Vinjamuri tells Bloomberg. "He will be seeking to see whether China will do anything to help unlock that."

"I think for the US president, the number one thing is really the Strait [of Hormuz], not the nuclear issue," said Council President and CEO Leslie Vinjamuri while discussing the stalled peace talks between the US and Iran on the Bloomberg Surveillance Podcast.

From trade to Taiwan, the two leaders are set to discuss a range of thorny issues this week in Beijing.

"I think all parties would like to see some regular traffic through the strait," Council President and CEO Leslie Vinjamuri says. "The problem is that even if we get there, Iran is still going to have this . . . this incredible tool that it can play."