Elon Musk and Jamie Dimon are in China this week seeking détente between the world’s two biggest markets. The Tesla CEO was quoted by Chinese officials saying US and Chinese interests were intertwined like “conjoined twins”. Dimon, who once made the faux pas of joking that JPMorgan would outlast the Chinese Communist Party, acknowledged that dealing with China was a “far more complex situation” than before the pandemic. Spy balloon spats, a crackdown on Western consultancies and a lagging economic recovery all make for a tricky trading relationship. Could capitalist realpolitik salvage it? Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang expressed China’s position with a stretch limo of a car metaphor: “We must step on the brake in time, avoid dangerous driving and be skillful at using the accelerator to promote mutually beneficial cooperation.”
