A year into Trump presidency, 'pivot to China' gathers pace

BEIJING/HONG KONG - When US President Donald J. Trump took office a year ago with an "America First" agenda, many saw trouble for China's sluggish economy, but Beijing has thawed frosty relationships with other trade partners to post a record trade surplus.

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While Mr. Trump's policies have strained ties with traditional US allies, China has turned its focus to fostering ties with key partners, including Canada and India, analysts say.

As a result, the world's second-largest economy's trade surplus hit a record $1.2 trillion in 2025, monthly foreign exchange (forex) inflows touched $100 billion, the largest ever, and the global usage of China's currency, the yuan, has expanded.

When British Prime Minister Keir Starmer lands in China on Wednesday evening hoping to reinvigorate recently strained business ties, analysts and experts say Beijing is expected to further expand its global political and economic influence.

Backed by its $20-trillion economy and $45 trillion worth of stock and bond markets, China is emerging as a "steady partner" for many countries, said Aleksandar Tomic, economics professor at Boston College.

"I think China has done a good job and rightly so to position itself as the reliable and stable trade partner," said Derrick Irwin, cohead of intrinsic emerging markets equity at Allspring Global Investments.

"They basically said, look, you've got a massive trade partner in the US that's become a little more uncertain. We can offer predictability and certainty. And I think that's very fair." Mr. Starmer's four-day visit to China will be the first by a British prime minister since 2018 and follows that of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney earlier this month, the first Canadian prime minister to visit Beijing since 2017.