Trump’s China trap: Why Xi keeps winning the summitry game

Michael Kovrig/Foreign Affairs: Beijing, meanwhile, is playing a longer game. Chinese officials weaponize economic interdependence for leverage in pursuit of more profound strategic and political advantages. Chinese protocol and propaganda officials ensure that each visitor accepts a script and choreography that reinforce Xi’s narrative of China’s inevitable rise. Deference to Beijing is now a requirement for economic cooperation. Visiting leaders must convey grievances and criticisms privately, if at all, and in public must speak the language of “strategic partnerships” and “resets,” not of human rights and democracy. Even disagreements over sovereignty and security matters—for example, China’s military intimidation in the western Pacific and its use of espionage, technology theft, and disinformation—must be framed as “misunderstandings.” The perception all this creates is that the world is coming to Beijing and that decoupling is impossible…