China’s fumble: Beijing dropped the ball after Donald Trump’s US left the global stage, analysts say

As the Biden administration prepares to take the reins in Washington, the stakes have never been higher for the US relationship with China and the rest of Asia. In the latest in a post-US election series, Mark Magnier analyses the historic opportunity that Beijing had to improve its global standing as President Donald Trump insulted allies, launched trade wars and undermined international agreements.

In January 2017, three days before Donald Trump’s inauguration as president of the United States, Chinese President Xi Jinping entered the heart of international capitalism and threw down the gauntlet.

In a first-ever World Economic Forum appearance by a Chinese leader, Xi defended economic globalisation and pledged to fill the leadership vacuum quickly developing with the “America first” agenda Trump had campaigned on and would soon carry out.

Now, as Trump staggers toward the exit after four years of insulting allies, launching trade wars and undermining international agreements, analysts and former officials question why China squandered such a historic opportunity to improve its global standing.

Asian, European, Latin American and North American experts cite a variety of reasons for Beijing’s having dropped the ball. But many come down to a mindset that the West is failing and the world needs to acknowledge China’s superior system – an assessment they note that could prove premature and counterproductive.

“They’ve had this giant opportunity over the past four years with the American president so unpopular abroad,” said Zack Cooper, an American Enterprise Institute fellow and former White House adviser. “It’s a combination of China’s increasing confidence and decreasing ability to hide that confidence.”

“They don’t feel the need to placate others. I think that’s a self-defeating approach that’s doing a lot of harm to Beijing.”