Chinese President Xi Jinping issued some of his starkest language yet about the state of the global economy on Tuesday, telling Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in Beijing, “The international order is crumbling into disarray,” in remarks reported by Bloomberg, which clarified the Chinese phrase connotes not merely chaos, but also moral decay.
The two leaders were pledging closer bilateral ties and called for a joint front to preserve multilateralism—a pointed signal, directed at Washington, that Beijing intends to fill the vacuum left by America’s more unilateral posture on the world stage.
