How does Xi Jinping view the circus Donald Trump is ring-mastering in Washington? There is no denying that the new president has created an opportunity for Xi to drive a wedge into the flank of the battered transatlantic alliance. China’s special representative to the EU optimistically described Trump’s treatment of Europeans as so “appalling” that it was likely to make them more willing to recognise Beijing’s approach to “peace, friendship, goodwill and win-win cooperation”.
It was only a few months ago that Xi deserved his reputation as the world’s disruptor-in-chief. Beijing was (and still is) encroaching in the South China Sea, stepping up its incursions in Taiwan, and jousting with Japan over claims to the Senkaku Islands. But since Trump’s election, Xi has begun to look comparatively restrained, like the steadier player in US-China relations. His foreign minister, Wang Yi, went as far to describe China as an anchor in an increasingly uncertain world.
