Helping America’s hawks get inside the head of Xi Jinping
China’s leader is a risk-taker. How far will he go in confronting America?
AS DONALD TRUMP assembles his foreign-policy team, many of his picks display a common characteristic: they are strident China hawks. Those seeking a tougher approach towards America’s rival range from Mike Waltz, Mr Trump’s proposed national security adviser, to Marco Rubio, his nominee for secretary of state. Part of their job will be to grasp how relations have changed in the four years since the last Trump administration, a period in which the Chinese economy has sagged, tensions around Taiwan and in the South China Sea have grown, and the war in Ukraine has further divided the world’s biggest powers. When weighing up the risks Xi Jinping is prepared to take in his competition with America, new calculations are needed. Forming them must involve studying what motivates China’s leader.
Explore more
This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Inside the head of Xi Jinping”
From the November 23rd 2024 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the edition
Amid a trade war, Xi Jinping may be purging China’s armed forces
Why the tariff confrontation is not the only thing on his mind
China’s propagandists preach defiance in the trade war with America
The public seems on board, for now
Chinese officials are encouraging office workers not to work so hard
More free time means more consumption, they hope
China hawks are losing influence in Trumpworld, despite the trade war
“Restrainers” are taking over from “primacists”
Why are Chinese soldiers fighting in Ukraine?
They have been showing up on both sides of the battlefield throughout the war
China’s shoemakers seem more sanguine than its politicians
A trade war will cause a lot of damage, but many have weathered storms before