Since 2013, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has been looking for a strategy to make Asia’s biggest economy great again. Little did he know it would be Donald Trump’s presidency. Fifteen months ago, as Trump 2.0 got underway, the White House radiated confidence. Trump advisers argued that sweeping tariffs would pressure Beijing to yield, redirecting the gains of a
US$53 trillion economic relationship sharply in Washington’s favor.
Trump’s arrival in Beijing this week comes at a moment when, to use his own phrasing, Xi’s China “holds all the cards.”
China’s state-run Global Times goes even further, arguing that the United States is limping into the visit like a “
giant with a limp” as the Iran conflict spirals, oil prices surge past US$100 a barrel, tariffs strain relations with US allies, and court rulings chip away at Washington’s leverage abroad.
