Opinion | With Trump in the White House, don’t count on the US and China finding common ground any time soon
Robert Delaney says the US president’s scorched-earth approach to international relations is a deal-breaker. To ease tensions, much may depend on the depth of personal relationships between Americans and Chinese, outside politics
Former US trade representative Charlene Barshefsky, for example, spoke of a man on the street in Beijing, who flagged her down and held her by the arm until he found an English speaker so he could convey his appreciation for her work getting China into the World Trade Organisation. “You gave my son a better future,” the man told Barshefsky, according to her account.
The story drew a rare mid-panel round of applause from a rapt audience of China watchers, and the usual acrimony around the subject of China and the WTO dissolved into a feel-good moment.
