China

One day after the US announced it would sell $1.42 billion in weapons to China's offshore nemesis Taiwan, Beijing lashed out at the United States, saying it was "outraged" and demanded the US revoke immediately its "wrong decision", saying it contradicted a "consensus" President Xi Jinping reached with his counterpart, Donald Trump, in talks in April in Florida.

The proposed U.S. package for Taiwan includes technical support for early warning radar, high speed anti-radiation missiles, torpedoes and missile components.

Validating the recent surge in iron ore, which has jumped more than 18% from 2017 lows hit just two weeks ago on speculation the PBOC may be willing to flirt with another round of inflation, overnight Beijing reported an unexpectedly strong bounce in its manufacturing and service sectors. 

It appears President Trump's remarks about the lack of progress made by China in pressuring North Korea has worked. Reuters reports that CNPC - the main supplier of diesel and gasoline to North Korea - has halted sales, reportedly because the buyers could not pay.

A week after the President said that "while I greatly appreciate the efforts of President Xi & China to help with North Korea, it has not worked out. At least I know China tried!"

Two weeks after Trump's ominous "China "tried and failed" to contain North Korea tweet, the US president appears to be getting closer to that default condition in US-China relations which many had anticipated from day one: a not particularly cooperative one. Here's Reuters:

Authored by YaleGlobal Online via OilPrice.com,

China’s Belt and Road Forum, hosted with great fanfare, signals the priority of this flagship connectivity initiative while also underlining its credentials as the new “shaper” of global trends and norms. Exhorting all countries to participate, Chinese President Xi Jinping suggested that “what we hope to create is a big family of harmonious co-existence.”