As US and China talk, middle powers jostle for position

Last week, German and Chinese business leaders met in Düsseldorf for an economic dialogue. Although the panel focused on trade, and investment between China and Europe, the ongoing US-China rivalry was the elephant in the room. As Xi Jinping and Donald Trump sit down in Washington this week, there is some hope that talks will show progress on alleviating the ongoing trade war launched by the US president. The last time the two leaders met at a Beijing summit in May did not yield any tangible results. "The assumption in Beijing, and that's the way they're operating, is that China and the US will hold each other in check for the foreseeable future," Mikko Huotari, director of the Berlin-based China think tank MERICS, told a policy briefing last week.