This is a brief note to share impressions from a quick visit to China this week. After spending two days in meetings with officials in Beijing, I am more worried about mismatched expectations about trade talks between the US and China. Chinese leaders appear confident they can satisfy Washington primarily with purchasing agreements, and only vague commitments on domestic structural reform. They understand that some Trump advisors will reject such as a package as vulnerable to attack from hawks, but appear to score the risks of that as lower than those entailed with a bigger reform agenda this year.
