It’s the day before the biggest geopolitical handshake of 2025, and we’re breaking down everything that’s gone down in the 24 hours leading up to the Trump–Xi summit in Busan. On today’s episode of The Restricted Handling Podcast, we’re diving headfirst into the drama, the deals, and the double-dealing—because when the world’s two biggest powers sit down for a “truce,” you know there’s a whole lot more going on behind the curtain. 

First up, we’ve got the U.S.–China trade “framework” that’s still wobbling its way toward a deal. President Trump’s team is promising tariff cuts in exchange for Beijing cracking down on fentanyl precursors, while Xi’s crew is dangling a one-year pause on rare-earth export restrictions—the same minerals that power everything from F-35s to iPhones. It’s being sold as cooperation, but make no mistake: this is transactional diplomacy at its finest. And markets? They’re eating it up. Stocks are climbing, oil’s up, gold’s cooling, and everyone’s pretending this is fine. 

But while the trade negotiators are smoothing things over, Beijing’s military looks like it’s imploding. Xi Jinping’s latest purge makes Game of Thrones look tame—nine generals gone, one-third of his top brass missing from the Fourth Plenum, and his new enforcer, Zhang Shengmin, elevated to vice chair of the Central Military Commission. We’ll unpack how this “clean-up” is actually a sign of serious instability inside the People’s Liberation Army, especially in the Taiwan-facing Eastern Theater Command. 

Meanwhile, across the Pacific, the U.S. is locking in its alliance game. The Typhon missile systems in the Philippines are now a permanent fixture, Japan’s turning civilian airports into war-ready refueling hubs, and U.S.–India joint anti-submarine drills near Diego Garcia are showing off that “Indo-Pacific unity” everyone keeps talking about. China’s trying to save face with some friendly naval visits to Singapore and Cambodia, but it’s pretty clear who’s got the momentum right now. 

We’ll also hit the tech and cyber front, where the FCC just tightened restrictions on Huawei and ZTE, Nvidia’s threading the needle between patriotism and profit, and Shanghai just launched the world’s first wind-powered undersea data center—because nothing says “peaceful innovation” like building your own ocean fortress of data. 

And to top it off? A spy confession in L.A., a collapsed trial in London, and Trump doing what he does best—delivering a bravado-filled speech on an aircraft carrier, taking a swipe at China’s navy while the cameras roll. 

From tariffs to tech wars, espionage to AI, this episode has it all. Tune in now—because when Trump and Xi shake hands tomorrow, you’ll already know what’s really behind the smile.