Get ready for one of the most jam-packed episodes yet — RH 10.27.25 | China: Tariff Truce, AI Warbots, and Xi’s Power Play. In this edition of The Restricted Handling Podcast, we dive headfirst into a wild 24 hours inside the world’s most strategically ambitious superpower. From Beijing’s backroom deals to battlefield AI, this one’s loaded with energy, intrigue, and a touch of chaos.

We start with the week’s headline: the U.S. and China have hit “pause” on their economic slugfest. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng hammered out a framework deal that puts Trump’s threatened 100% tariffs on ice. That alone would be huge — but toss in a deferral on China’s rare earth export curbs and the long-awaited TikTok divestment deal, and suddenly the chessboard looks different. Trump’s already claiming victory mid-flight to South Korea, while Xi’s keeping his poker face. The markets? Loving it. Currencies up, dollar down, global sigh of relief… for now.

But here’s where it gets spicy. Behind the diplomatic smiles, Xi Jinping’s been stockpiling like it’s the apocalypse. Oil, gas, soybeans, metals — you name it, China’s hoarding it. Its crude reserves have tripled in size since February, and the Dongjiakou facility alone now holds 24 million barrels. They’re buying sanctioned oil from Russia and Iran, snapping up copper mines in Chile, nickel plants in Indonesia, and grain from Brazil. Beijing’s not just preparing for trade turbulence — it’s building a war-proof economy.

Then we zoom into the power plays inside China’s elite. Xi’s purged nine generals this month in what one exiled journalist calls a “wartime reorganization.” Think of it as a military loyalty reboot. Commanders from the Rocket Force and Navy are out, replaced by political loyalists who’ll follow Xi’s orders without question. It’s not corruption cleanup — it’s obedience conditioning. The kind of purge that screams “readiness,” not reform.

And that’s before we even touch on DeepSeek — the AI platform now powering China’s military. We’re talking robot dogs, AI-guided drone swarms, autonomous command systems — all running on Huawei chips. DeepSeek’s reportedly analyzing 10,000 battle scenarios in under a minute. It’s not sci-fi; it’s military-industrial reality. Pair that with predictive policing and full-spectrum surveillance, and you get a glimpse of China’s “intelligentized warfare” strategy — an algorithmic army built for the next era of conflict.

We also hit the global side hustle: Beijing just wrapped Blue Sword-4, a joint naval exercise with Saudi Arabia in Jubail. Combat drills, mine clearance, counter-drone ops — all part of China’s growing military footprint in the Gulf. Meanwhile, Trump’s making his own moves in Southeast Asia, locking down trade deals in Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam to counter Beijing’s grip. And just when tensions seemed to cool, China offered humanitarian help after two U.S. Navy aircraft crashed in the South China Sea — a rare soft touch in an otherwise hard-nosed week.

This episode has it all — diplomacy, deception, digital warfare, and a dash of drama. Tune in to RH 10.27.25 | China and get the unfiltered rundown on how Beijing’s playing the long game — one barrel, one algorithm, and one purge at a time.