Allies Rethink; CHIPS Money Gets a Makeover; and DeepSeek Defies Sanctions

Plus, the secret history of Coca-Cola in China.

Good evening. Two of America’s closest allies are currently re-evaluating their relationships with both China and the U.S. under President Trump — and they seem to be reaching different conclusions. As Sam Goodman warns in one of our op-eds, Britain seems ready to risk falling out of step with Trump on China. Meanwhile, later this week, Canada is expected to release its final report after a major inquiry into Chinese interference in the country. Our cover story, by Eliot Chen, will be published right after its release (watch your inboxes!) and is a fascinating examination of how Canada is undergoing a ‘mindset shift’ when it comes to China, its own national security and, rather reluctantly, its relationship with President Trump. (For some backstory, read our 2021 piece on Justin Trudeau’s China playbook.)

Elsewhere, we have an infographic on who’s who in Trump’s China team (which is being updated regularly); an interview with Susan Greenhalgh on the secret history of Coca-Cola’s involvement in Chinese public health messaging; a reported piece on what will happen to all that CHIPS and IRA money under Trump; and an op-ed from Lizzi Lee on how D.C. should think about the latest developments from DeepSeek, the Chinese AI company that is matching OpenAI in terms of capability.

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The Big Picture: Who’s Who on Trump’s China Team

The Trump administration contains a mix of longtime China hawks and businessmen who built their fortunes partly upon U.S.-China relations. In this comprehensive guide, Noah Berman maps out the people shaping the administration’s policy towards China.

A Q&A with Susan Greenhalgh

Susan Greenhalgh is a professor emerita of anthropology and the John King and Wilma Cannon Fairbank Professor of Chinese Society at Harvard University. An anthropologist by training, she has spent decades studying the entanglements of the state, corporations, science and society in China. She is the author of a new book,?Soda Science: Making the World Safe for Coca-Cola,?which tells the story of how the iconic American soft drink producer secretly funded scientific research that minimized its role in driving up obesity rates around the world, especially in the U.S. and China. In this interview with Eliot Chen, she discusses the findings of her decade-long research project as well as what this scandal reveals about the nature of U.S.-China scientific cooperation.

How the ‘China Threat’ Could Help Preserve Biden’s Legacy

Invoking the challenge from the U.S.’s main rival could bolster support for investments begun over the last four years. Eliot Chen reports.

Britain Risks Falling Out of Step With Trump on China

The UK government’s attempt to attract more investment from China are unlikely to go do down well with the new U.S. administration, says Sam Goodman in this op-ed.

DeepSeek and the Strategic Limits of U.S. Sanctions

DeepSeek’s R1 model, which was released on Jan. 20, matches OpenAI’s sector-leading O1 model in mathematics, coding, and natural language inference — all while offering services at a fraction of the cost.?These developments raise an urgent question for Washington, argues Lizzi Lee in this op-ed: Can the U.S. secure lasting leadership in AI by erecting barriers, or is it time to fundamentally rethink its approach?

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