This official Briefing with Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs David Stilwell On Readout of Secretary Pompeo’s Meeting With Poliburo Member Yang Jiechi https://www.state.gov/briefing-with-assistant-secretary-for-east-asian-and-pacific-affairs-david-stilwell-on-readout-of-secretary-pompeos-meeting-with-poliburo-member-yang-jiechi/#.XuwI9LrDatA.twitter is interesting. Stilwell makes the point more than once to "watch the outcomes here in the next couple weeks". The news this morning saying the Chinese side is accelerating purchases under the phase one deal may be part of this. That is the easiest thing to do to keep Trump happy, as Stilwell says I guess we will find out within the next couple of weeks whether there was progress on other issues.

"ASSISTANT SECRETARY STILWELL: Well, I would go back to the actions in a results-oriented relationship, and this is one of our – I’m not going to answer the question right now. However, if you watch outcomes over the next couple weeks, you can see for yourself whether U.S. concerns – which have been expressed very publicly, not just this week in Hawaii but over the weeks coming out of D.C. – about this provocative behavior, and then just a long list of things: How about reciprocity? How about journalists who can’t report freely in the PRC and yet complain shrilly when they – or anything is done to Chinese journalists in the U.S.? The relationship needs to be more reciprocal. And we raised quite a few of these issues, and I’ll leave it to you to determine whether or not they are going to comply or not. Just watch the outcomes here in the next couple weeks and see.

I’m hopeful. Again, as I – we leave diplomatic space by not talking about this in detail where they feel like they’re boxed in. We leave them the diplomatic space to make decisions that demonstrate that they understand the need for this relationship to be more reciprocal and “win-win,” to use their term, on both sides. And so I always remain optimistic. I am often disappointed, but again, we’ll see if the presentation – if our interactions this week had the desired effect"