Donald Trump’s first reaction to the disconcerting spectacle of China’s Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un marching side-by-side at a huge military parade in Beijing was, predictably, all about him. This show of solidarity and strength, he complained, was nothing less than an attempt to “conspire” against the United States. Trump likes military parades – his own, that is. Even more, he likes to be on the podium, at the centre of attention. He casts himself as world number one. The images coming out of the Chinese capital this week challenged him on all three counts.
This puncturing of Trump’s insecure ego, and the striking feebleness of his response, will greatly gratify Xi. Trump’s behaviour towards China since taking office in January has been aggressive, vindictive and patronising by turns. His punitive trade tariffs, in particular, have caused unprecedented disruption. Though the worst of the levies are paused until November, they help explain Xi’s repeated insistence China is a proud nation that will not be bullied. At the same time, Trump has talked vaguely about offering a face-to-face summit, as if bestowing a great gift. Parading the Beijing triumvirate was Xi’s pointed riposte.
