Bloomberg writes that forget about trade wars, debt mountains, regulatory crackdowns and even the hullabaloo surrounding Xi Jinping becoming China's perpetual president. The economy is expected to have tuned out all the background noise and powered ahead in the first quarter. According to the median estimate of economists in a Bloomberg News survey, growth maintained a 6.8 percent pace, well ahead of a target for about 6.5 percent expansion this year. The report is due for release Tuesday at 10 a.m. in Beijing, along with retail sales and industrial production data for March. The statistics bureau also will begin monthly release of a survey-based unemployment rate, the first regularly updated gauge for the world's biggest labor market that's similar to indexes for other major economies like the U.S. and Europe. Tougher times may await should Xi's so-called critical battles against financial risk and pollution bite deeper or if trade tensions with the U.S. intensify. But as Xi pledges wider opening and better protection for intellectual property rights -- central issues in Donald Trump's trade gripes -- economists see growth ending 2018 bang on the 6.5 percent target.

The Financial Times writes that the Chinese president and his top advisers, including vice-president Wang Qishan and vice-premier Liu He, were initially confident the US and China could bridge their differences through talks, according to people who have recently met them…But China's view of the US president began to shift after Mr Trump threatened to put tariffs on another $100bn of Chinese imports. The US President had already enraged Chinese officials in March by signing the Taiwan Travel Act, which urges more US exchanges with the self-ruled island that Beijing regards as Chinese territory. While Chinese officials now realise Mr Trump meant what he said in Beijing in November — that the Sino-US trade relationship was not "fair and reciprocal" and had to be solved — they also believe they can emerge from a trade war relatively unscathed. China was surprised again on Friday after Mr Trump said he would consider re-joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. Chinese officials had seen his move to leave the TPP, which did not include China, on day one in office as a "grand gift".