Trump’s woes at home, what China’s World Cup presence shows: 7 US-China relations reads

Trump’s woes at home, what China’s World Cup presence shows: 7 US-China relations reads From US denaturalisation to military safety talks, here are highlights from our overseas correspondents in the first half of June 2026 1. Trump has an understanding with Xi. His own administration doesn’t like it On a state visit to China last month, US President Donald Trump shocked his political base with a series of rhetorical concessions – and it was not the first time Trump’s softer stance on China clashed with his own administration’s hardline approach. 2. US adds Alibaba, BYD, other Chinese tech champions to military company blacklist The Pentagon signalled in June that it was adding Alibaba, BYD, Baidu and dozens of other Chinese companies to its list of entities it says are linked to China’s military, widening a blacklist that increasingly targets sectors at the heart of US-China technological competition. 3. Nationals from China, India among 17 new US denaturalisation cases The Trump administration is stepping up efforts to revoke the citizenship of naturalised Americans, with the US Justice Department having filed lawsuits against 17 people accused of obtaining citizenship through fraud or concealing serious crimes.