If any place can steal the limelight from the Trump show for a moment, it is China. The People’s Republic of China, governed by a party-state under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is typically portrayed as an antagonist of the United States—a strategic competitor, rival, adversary, enemy. For some, this juxtaposition harkens back to the days of the Cold War. But in 2025, China is as much associated with manufacturing and exports as it is with communism. The U.S. and Chinese economies have become deeply dependent on each other.

On Aug. 1, U.S. President Donald Trump fired Erika McEntarfer, the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner, after the release of a report that showed weak jobs numbers. He has since nominated E.J. Antoni, an economist with the conservative Heritage Foundation and a Jan. 6 participant , to replace her. Antoni, who is seen as incompetent or malicious by most of his contemporaries, is likely to put out a dubious set of numbers to serve Trump’s agenda. The politicization of numbers is a hallmark of authoritarian governance, especially in China for the last four decades.

On Aug. 1, U.S. President Donald Trump fired Erika McEntarfer, the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner, after the release of a report that showed weak jobs numbers. He has since nominated E.J. Antoni, an economist with the conservative Heritage Foundation and a Jan. 6 participant, to replace her. Antoni, who is seen as incompetent or malicious by most of his contemporaries, is likely to put out a dubious set of numbers to serve Trump’s agenda. The politicization of numbers is a hallmark of authoritarian governance, especially in China for the last four decades.

If any place can steal the limelight from the Trump show for a moment, it is China. The People’s Republic of China, governed by a party-state under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is typically portrayed as an antagonist of the United States—a strategic competitor, rival, adversary, enemy. For some, this juxtaposition harkens back to the days of the Cold War. But in 2025, China is as much associated with manufacturing and exports as it is with communism. The U.S. and Chinese economies have become deeply dependent on each other.

Many argue that this interdependence is dangerous and that the United States needs to change in order to respond to China’s threatening nature. But sometimes China is a mirror of the United States. On Ezra Klein’s podcast, Tom Friedman explicitly acknowledged that whenever he wrote about China, he was really writing about the United States.