After the first day of meetings between U.S. President Donald Trump and China’s supreme leader, Xi Jinping, a supporter of the U.S. president was ecstatic, exulting on X that Xi had “stunned the room” with his declaration that the two countries “should be partners, not rivals.” In her reading, the call for partnership was a sign of the newfound respect the Chinese leadership has for the U.S. under Trump.
It’s easy to make fun of the naivete behind that view, but it’s probably more widespread than you think. That gap between public understanding of what China is doing and why and the reality of Beijing’s policy speaks to a broader failure that deserves more attention.
The Trump supporter professed to be “in tears” after Xi’s kumbaya statement. After years of being told that the U.S. was being laughed at, the image of its chief rival extending the hand of partnership does suggest a rejuvenation of the nation’s fortunes. Why reach out to a country that is a laughingstock, which is what Trump called the U.S. — but only when he wasn’t president? (Trump doubled down on that take in an interview on Fox News after the summit, saying that “Xi said America is a nation in decline. And I said, ‘you’re right.’”)
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