This article is almost two years old, but I came across it recently, and I think it's aged extremely well.
We've now seen several instances of Trump "negotiating" trade, and many people have come to the (correct) realization that Trump only cares about PR victories in these conflicts, not actual victories with actual effects. He shouted about NAFTA for years, stomped his feet in office, and ultimately claimed victory over Canada and Mexico. Yet the actual concessions from either country -- and the impact on America -- are essentially nonexistent. He just wanted the PR, and he backed off once he had it.
China saw that. They know very well that they could get out of this current trade spat with the same kind of minor concessions that Canada and Mexico made, and it would not have any meaningful effect on either country. But they haven't. They're choosing not to. By all accounts, it was China who decided to leave the negotiating table. They see Trump as an opportunity to speed the decline of America as a global player, and they are prolonging this conflict in order to quicken that goal.
Making China Great Again
We've now seen several instances of Trump "negotiating" trade, and many people have come to the (correct) realization that Trump only cares about PR victories in these conflicts, not actual victories with actual effects. He shouted about NAFTA for years, stomped his feet in office, and ultimately claimed victory over Canada and Mexico. Yet the actual concessions from either country -- and the impact on America -- are essentially nonexistent. He just wanted the PR, and he backed off once he had it.
China saw that. They know very well that they could get out of this current trade spat with the same kind of minor concessions that Canada and Mexico made, and it would not have any meaningful effect on either country. But they haven't. They're choosing not to. By all accounts, it was China who decided to leave the negotiating table. They see Trump as an opportunity to speed the decline of America as a global player, and they are prolonging this conflict in order to quicken that goal.
Making China Great Again
China’s leaders rarely air their views about an American President, but well-connected scholars—the ranking instituteniks of Beijing and Shanghai and Guangzhou—can map the contours of their assessments. Yan Xuetong is the dean of Tsinghua University’s Institute of Modern International Relations. At sixty-five, Yan is bouncy and trim, with short silver hair and a roaring laugh. When I arrived at his office one evening, he donned a black wool cap and coat, and we set off into the cold. Before I could ask a question, he said, “I think Trump is America’s Gorbachev.” In China, Mikhail Gorbachev is known as the leader who led an empire to collapse. “The United States will suffer,” he warned.
Over a dinner of dumplings, tofu, and stir-fried pork, Yan said that America’s strength must be measured partly by its ability to persuade: “American leadership has already dramatically declined in the past ten months. In 1991, when Bush, Sr., launched the war against Iraq, it got thirty-four countries to join the war effort. This time, if Trump launched a war against anyone, I doubt he would get support from even five countries. Even the U.S. Congress is trying to block his ability to start a nuclear war against North Korea.” For Chinese leaders, Yan said, “Trump is the biggest strategic opportunity.” I asked Yan how long he thought the opportunity would last. “As long as Trump stays in power,” he replied.