China's path is clear thanks to Trump's wrecking ball

Xi Jinping has it all. From Donald Trump's perspective, the Chinese leader is basking in sycophantic bonhomie from fellow global authoritarians while enjoying a parade of tanks and stealth bombers, massive missiles, lasers and mass marches of beautifully drilled infantry.

- SAM KILEY

Xi’s international prestige is at an all-time high. And Trump gave it to him.

Xi could have been addressing his thoughts directly to the White House when he said, at Monday’s Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, that we are going through “turbulent change” and what is needed is an orderly “multipolar world”.

China, he believes, is the candidate to lead that multipolar world as first among equals, while Trump has swung a wrecking ball against the foundations of international law that underpin global security.

In the first months of his second term, the US president has attacked his own allies. He has echoed Vladimir Putin’s imperial ambitions by voicing threats against Canada and Denmark. He has also abandoned climate change and global democracy as strategic policies worth pushing.

In short, Trump has undermined the West. And that makes Xi not only look good but also makes him more powerful.

America is, along with Israel, abandoning democracy at home and ignoring international law abroad. Both attacked Iran without United Nations support. Both are involved in the relentless bombing of Gaza. Both are supportive of increasingly loopy ideas for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homeland.