NEW: Top Trump officials take harder actions on China during pandemic — cutting US investments, scientific collaboration and infrastructure purchases. Xi & Communist Party play tough too. Ties are at lowest point in decades. w/ @AnaSwanson. Story & thread. nytimes.com/2020/05/01/us/…
2. Pompeo leads senior aides in asking spy agencies to keep looking for proof supporting an unsubstantiated theory that a lab accident in China led to the pandemic. Agency analysts say they likely won't find it & fear distortion of assessments. More here: nytimes.com/2020/04/30/us/…
3. White House aides prodded Trump this week to sign an executive order blocking a retirement fund, the Thrift Savings Plan, from investing in Chinese cos. Trump is weighing it. That's part of a wider move to prevent opaque or shadowy Chinese cos. from getting American capital.
4. Trump said today that electricity equipment linked to "a foreign adversary" — a reference to China — cannot be used in US power grids. Last month, US agencies recommended to FCC that it ban China Telecom Americas from domestic network. And US is still on anti-Huawei campaign.
5. Trump administration cut off a scientific grant that would help support research at virology labs in Wuhan, where the pandemic began. Dept. of Education is looking into collaborations between University of Texas and those labs. WSJ posted letter: s.wsj.net/public/resourc…
6. Some advisers are discussing trying to sue China for reparations over virus — which runs into issue of sovereign immunity. Jared Kushner avoided a question about it on Fox. But he decided in late April to back harder line on China. Mnuchin & Kudlow still want softer approach.
7. Some of Trump's top economic aides say US shouldn't overreach. China likely will get its economy going while US is still deep in recession. The aides want to preserve the January trade deal. And China controls a vast supply of medical gear — and might develop a vaccine first.
8. "The rising tensions are propelled by deeply nationalist administrations in both Beijing and Washington, D.C., and domestic populations that are coming to view a rupture in the bilateral relationship as inevitable or even desirable," said @judeblanchette of @CSIS.
