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An intimate biographical account of new Chinese leader Xi Jinping and his connections with Muscatine Iowa, where he visited as a head of a Chinese farm delegation in 1985. Xi Jinping remembers the trip vivdly and plans to spend time with friends from that visit during a visit to the U.S. in 2012. He spent two nights during that visit in the bedroom of two college age boys of the Dvorchak family. This revealing account of Jinping's life shows that the actual story of his life is quite different from the title of "princelings" or privileged sons of former communist leaders that is suggested by this reference in the media. Because of the volatile nature of Chinese politics, his father Xi Zhongxun, who led communist partisans in the struggle of the pre World War II years, was rehabilitated twice after falling out of favor. The first period was in 1962 and it was not till 1979 when he was fully rehabilitated. During this period which coincides with the growing up period of Xi from 9-26 years of age, Xi experienced many hardships. During the years of the Cultural revoultion Xi was sent at age 15 to Shanxi province where his father had led partisans. He lived there for 7 years in a traditional cave dwelling in the village of Liangjahe doing farm work. He was denied admission to Tsinghua University twice before being accepted in 1974. There he graduated with a degree in organic chemistry. This was followed by three years working as an assistant to Geng Biao, defense minister and a partisan who was a colleague of his father. The next job was deputy Communist party chief of Zhengding county in Hebei province. Iowa Governor Branstad visited Hebei in 1984, and Branstad played host to a animal-feed delegation led by Jinping in 1985- the visit to Muscatine was part of this trip and which Jinping has told others he enjoyed more than his visits to Oregon or California that year. The second time Xinping's father went out of favor was after his criticism of the crackdown of protests at Tienanmen Square. These experiences have given Xinping a confidence and experience in different situations that other Chinese leaders including the current leaders lacked. If Jinping has inherited some characteristics from his father he may also have the courage to take China in a new direction, and make the kind of changes China needs as it shifts away from an export based economy. At the same time rule in China is by consensus of leaders on the communist party's standing committee. His father helped initiate the special economic zone in Guangdong province in 1978, and Xi Xinping held senior posts in the provinces of Fujian and Zhejiang and in Shanghai, giving him close ties with industry and local government in areas that led the export based economy. Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore puts Jinping in the" class of Nelson Mandela type leaders, who has great emotional stability to not let his personal misfortunes and sufferings cloud his personal judgement." Of political positions Jinping has a certain wariness. He once responded to mention of him as the potential leader with the words: "Are you trying to give me a fright."...

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US- China trade relations 2025 and XI's rare earth minerals export restrictions response to US tariffs. DJT resonse was 100% tariff on China from 57%. After meeting Xi in Busan, South Korea, after the APEC meetings, US settled on 10% reduction in tariffs from the 57% tariffs on Chinese products down now to 47%. The 100% tariff was withdrawn by DJT and China's Xi settled on withdrawing restrictions on exports of rare earth minerals. The fentanyl tariffs are still in place and the WSJ editorial says not much is likely to happen on fentanyl action by China to stop exports of fentanyl that reach the US through Mexico. China says it will take in soyabeans exports. US signs agreement with Australia to develop alternative supplies of rare earth minerals. The WSJ says for tariffs action to work US should not tariff allies. Yet broad tariffs action was necessary as partners Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the EU, Canada and Mexico were also nations that created an unfair trade situation for the US. The US took action on all nations that take unfair advantage of free trade concepts to benefit them which also add to the credibility of tariffs as effort to restore fairness in world trade.  ...

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Pictures of the Moon from Artemis II Moon Mission Orion Spacecraft shown in Washington Post. April 7 2026.

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Christina Romer, economic advisor to President Obama, offers a different view about monetary policy in 2011, suggesting that monetary easing after QE II should continue. She also argues for higher stimulus. She cites the improved economy in the period 1933-1937 as an example of the advantages of monetary easing, of 1937-1940 as a period where a focus on deficits resulted in a fall back of the U.S. economy. This is a view presented also by Paul Krugman. Meltzer's and Fed Governor Hoenig's view is that excessive monetary easing in 2003 created bubbles and that QE II has not reduced unemployment. Meltzer warned in 2009 that excessive monetary easing needed to be gradually withdrawn rather than risk an excesssive contraction later on.

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Key points emerging from Xi's 20th Party Congress for the Chinese Communist Party are shown here in the Indian Express including its attitude to India. The Jiang Zemin and Youth League factions are shown to have lost influence and Xi has his people in the Political Bureau and the Central Military Commission. GDP growth is no longer the priority to be replaced with more balanced development and reducing the wide disparity in wealth that developed in China over 3 decades of hyper growth. State control over  development becomes the preferred model.

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Even with corruption existing in the system the efforts to root it out of president Xi Jinping are generally recognized in China with 80% of the population respecting these efforts. Government officials in China are seen as much more well behaved than before. And in areas such as pollution control, climate change, renewable energy major efforts by Xi Jinping. This compares to the general lack of confidence in 2012 when corruption was at its highest level after twenty years of free marketism with lax government regulation even in enforcing clean air and water laws.

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Without human consciousness Ai's simply lack the vital elements of what makes us human. So called intelligent behaviours don't amount to much in this the most important aspect of our behaviours that makes us human in the way we have evolved over long periods of time. A recent Japanese movie showed how even the creators of AI that runs things in a futuristic Japan find themselves trapped in an AI run society, and how AI fails Japanese society.

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Intel's AI chief leaves to join Finland's Nokia as new CEO after Pekka Lundmark starting April 1, 2025. This follows the departure of Pat Gelsinger at Intel and changes in management at the company.

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With China's economy slowing, fewer jobs for college graduates in the cities, what is president Xi- who is visiting San Francisco this week- doing to tackle this problem? Even in Guangdong province with cities like Shenzen, it is very, very, very rural says Brian Spegele in this WSJ discussion. He talks about widespreard rural poverty. From his own experience spending time in the countryside in the impressionable years Xi has put this task to revitalize the rural areas to young people. In Guangdong alone about 300,000 youngsters will be given the opportunity to improve their credentials for future government work by going to the rural areas to bring talent that was drained from the 20 years of free market hypergrowth and urbanization. China is about 40% rural in 2023 and these regions have suffered badly, and Xi's efforts to revitalize come at a time after the pandemic when it makes little sense to continue urbanization as the only solution to problems. ...

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MAGA and change in thinking about solar energy because of its use in powering AI and keeping utility bills low.

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Rohit Prasad and Amazon AI that built Alexa to later fall behind, are back at work on the catchup effort.

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Cartoons from France on FR24 that show frustration of ordinary Chinese over zero covid policy that is mentioned also by Xi Jinping in conversations with western leaders.

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Gina Raimondo, US Commerce Secretary, visits Beijing to help restore key aspects of the US China trade and business relationship. Her visit follows visits by Anthony Blinken and Janet Yellen that helped rebuild the relationship after the pandemic and the rhetoric and actions of the Trump administration had weakened ties. The balloon incident and the visit by Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan further strained relationship with China. This is changing as China increases engagement following the pandemic and president Xi is expected to visit the US for an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation APEC meeting in November at which president Biden will meet Xi.

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Planned restrictions on the export of Nvidia A800 chips to China is a signal from the Biden administration to chip companies to stop circumventing the export restrictions, says this report in WSJ. These restrictions may include cloud services too. A800 chips have the same computing power as the A100 which are already restricted for export, but have a lower bandwith for communicating with other chips.

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Ezra Klein of the NYT looks at proposed US, EU and Chinese regulatory framework for AI. He points out the problems with the EU- too specific, US- too broad, and China's - state oriented. Klein gives specific points that need to be considered carefully including setting up the regulatory agency like the FDA to strictly regulate AI systems and companies.

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Debt markets and Analysts fear too much building of data centers will lead to construction taking more time for the AI data centers to come online, and by that time they fear aglut of data center capacity leading to losses. One AI data center company is asked to pay 3.75% more in interest rates, 70% more for loans. Other reports suggest caution because of the circular nature of data center investments where the same companies are coming up again and again in complex transactions and lack of transparency. Oracle took losses on it's stock price for its financial dealings.

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President Xi Jinping to introduce regulation into what was once an essentially unregulated economy, including a housing sector with financial risks built on ever increasing leverage, are expected to slow the economy to 6-7% growth rate. This is seen as acceptable to address the other goals president Xi sees as essential for the long term future of China. China urban is what most people in the US and Europe see. This is only 60% of China. The other 40% is stuck with lower incomes at about a third of urban areas and with few opportunities. Within urban areas there are the people with moderate incomes who are spooked at housing prices and living in small flats, and now with the pandemic there are many more who are unemployed as China lacks an unemployment insurance system like the US. This and Xi's close connections to farmers in Hebei, and other provinces where he has spent time as party secretary, mean he will now give all of China's people an even chance for a better life. Just as in the US with president Biden, president Xi is tackling social and economic problems left after decades of tech driven expansion aggravated income inequality and poverty. ...

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Huge losses similar to parts of the war in World War II- and calls from the US president to stop the war in 2025 and talks in 2026.

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Indian foreiign minister S Jaishankar meets with his counterpart Wang Yi in Dushnabe, Uzbekistan, to restore peace in border region of Ladakh after the violent clash in 2020. Jaishankar tells China not to view ties with India through "the lens of a third country." China agrees. Jaishankar was actively involved in setting up cultural and other Sino-Indian contacts in Chinese cities when he was Indian ambassador to China. Jaishankar also tells China that India China relations set the tone for peace in Asia. China says it agrees with this idea. India's strong response to China's border infrastructure building and its moving forces close to the border line of control, has led to China reconsidering its policy following deteriorating relations with Australia, US and UK. China now sees that it has little to gain with worsening India relations and border issues or clashes, when the US and UK, Australia, are moving forces into the Indo-Pacific region and in the seas around Taiwan. ...

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The risks facing China of slow growth and a bubble economy as the new leadership of Xi Jinping takes over in 2012. The export model for the economy is coming to the end of its run and the new leaders have to come up with a new plan for the future. At the same time they face the interests of state owned companies, banks and local governments interested in maintaining the status quo.