On Balance | The state of US politics today should warm Chinese hearts

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi could not have had a better visit to the US last week, as he was able to witness American carnage – political and literal – up close.

Not only did he keep the confirmation of a Joe Biden-Xi Jinping summit at Apec in his back pocket, meaning possibly more assurances that Xi will get the kind of treatment that will play well back home, he also got to see real-time coverage of a mass murder in Maine, and the dust settling on an unprecedented power vacuum on Capitol Hill, as the Republican Party fully embraces the kind of “might makes right” governance that Beijing understands.

Former president Donald Trump may be losing badly in the many legal battles he’s fighting in various courts around the country, with some of his closest allies now working for the prosecution, but let’s acknowledge the victory that he’s managed to pull off politically.

The bruising House speakership battle appeared at times to signal that the former president had lost control of the Republicans, particularly when a band of party moderates locked arms to block Ohio Representative Jim Jordan – one of Trump’s most ardent supporters – from getting the gavel.

The centre didn’t hold, however. Those opposed to Jordan voted in another Trump-approved election denier, Representative Mike Johnson.