Xi Jinping Was Only Humoring Trump | In Beijing, a lame-duck president personified the decline of American power

China sees Trump as a singular loser, backed by the stupidest one-third of Americans.

A collection of points from this perspective:

>It calls itself the leader of the free world, but the free world no longer believes it. When it extends its hand, nobody rushes to accept. When it threatens, nobody trembles.
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>After President Trump arrived in Beijing this week, Xi Jinping showered him with pomp befitting a summit of great powers. Yet the Chinese leader permitted potshots at his guest to go viral on his country’s internet rather than suppressing them, as some observers expected he would during a state visit. Xi answered Trump’s lavish praise by sternly lecturing him about meddling with Taiwan. In the end, Xi offered nothing of great substance—no solutions to the war in Iran, no sweeping trade deals, no promises of access to rare earth minerals. Xi used the visit to humor the lame-duck president, waiting for his time to pass.
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>During the first Trump administration, foreign leaders flattered and accommodated the president out of deference to American power. They feared it; they relied on it. During the second administration, and especially since the beginning of the Iran war, their calculus has quietly shifted—not because the strategy of obsequiousness has failed, but because it’s no longer worth the trouble. Like many of his counterparts around the world, Xi has begun to assume that it’s not just Trump who is term-limited; it’s also his nation.
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>Trump’s war in Iran was meant to showcase American power. It did the opposite. In the course of failing to remove a much weaker regime or eliminate its nuclear threat, the United States blew through its arsenal—so much so that allies in the Pacific reasonably wonder whether enough munitions remain to protect them. According to The Wall Street Journal, the Pentagon is now worried that it lacks the firepower to execute contingency plans for defending Taiwan.
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>Supporters of the war argued that it would deal China a severe blow by eliminating one of its most potent allies. But the Gulf nations most threatened by Iran have actually turned to China. As first reported by The Washington Post, an intelligence assessment prepared for the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff warned that those countries have begun acquiring from Beijing the systems needed to protect their oil infrastructure and bases. Trump didn’t just fail to weaken China’s position in the Middle East. He strengthened it.
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>By patiently waiting out this moment, by letting the United States exhaust itself, China has bought time to pursue what Xi calls “national self-reliance”—time to catch up with the West technologically and to fortify itself for the point when competition takes a harsher turn.
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>That very same strategy is guiding Iran. Trump repeatedly signals his desire for a deal to end the war, by wishfully exaggerating how close he is to reaching one. But Iran keeps responding to his offers with outrageous demands, including for reparations for the destruction the United States wrought.
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>American history is rife with the perils of lame-duck leaders. As their time in office grinds to a close, presidents grow eager to write a final chapter worthy of their saga. They reach for the grand gesture; they attempt to solve the intractable problem. But in their mad dash to assert their relevance, they manage merely to prove how little they matter to the rest of the world. Trump is now living that fate, and the consequences extend far beyond his presidency. Every failed deal, every summit that yields nothing, every boast that goes unfulfilled, confirms what adversaries already suspect. A lame-duck superpower exhausts itself in full view of the world, and the world moves on.

The irony here is that contrary to the stated goals of the MAGA movement, their policies and actions have managed to achieve the opposite: weakening the nation and its reputation to the point where there could be a credible argument made that America, like Russia, is no longer the preeminent nation-state. If the nation truly wants to improve itself, then both policymakers and citizens will need to engage in the difficult and messy task of reforming the systems and institutions that have shown themselves to be inadequate to contemporary goals and objectives.

Lame Duck before the midterms is an impressive feat. 

I like how he got called the leader of a declining nation to his face but he was too slow to catch on until later.

I wonder how many lavish ballrooms they showed him.

He’s the make a wish kid of world leaders

> American history is rife with the perils of lame-duck leaders. As their time in office grinds to a close, presidents grow eager to write a final chapter worthy of their saga. They reach for the grand gesture; they attempt to solve the intractable problem. But in their mad dash to assert their relevance, they manage merely to prove how little they matter to the rest of the world. Trump is now living that fate, and the consequences extend far beyond his presidency. Every failed deal, every summit that yields nothing, every boast that goes unfulfilled, confirms what adversaries already suspect. A lame-duck superpower exhausts itself in full view of the world, and the world moves on.

Agreed on all of this. The only thing I’d add is:

1) China isn’t playing catch up to Western tech. We’re now seeing China outpacing us. More engineers, better policy to channel innovation, etc. They have a tendency to downplay their achievements, and this reads more like not catching up but dominating the playing field – right now they’ve caught up.

2) We have a serious issue in society and business. In terms of our general culture, the problem is the lack of personal accountability weighed against perceieved “rights”. That and everyone is looking for the easy way out, which I can’t even blame considering the business culture. We fundamentally moved from valuing real value to speculative b.s. to now just fricking grifting. All of this comes from the business culture and performative value rather than measuring actual performance. There is very little reason SpaceX should be valued at what it is or expected pricing for their IPO, and there’s very little reason why these C suites should be getting the compensation they’re getting when most of them are hiding the underlying problems through stock buybacks.

We are literally seeing all of the problems in real time. I thought initially that we could ride out Trump but his entire administration so far removed all guardrails that these systemic problems are now coming to the fore.

Forget the West having a resurgence at this rate. We just gave the Chinese the global hegemon position. And if anyone cares, this means a complete restructuring to the Pacific. The EU and Western states like Canada relies on a strong US for our outsized global influence and prosperity. That’s now ending. Also, if anyone thinks we’re going to have the same level of cooperation as we did with the Chinese, that ain’t happening. Places like Pakistan has a better chance of reaping the benefits of the global paradigm shift than the UK does.

That stare that Xi did towards Stephen Miller yesterday was very interesting. Hard to read the chinese/politicians sometimes. Sometimes they try to fight “ego with ego”, specially in Trumpian times. But part of me thought it looked more like he was trying to eye/size him up, and just read him/look into his “soul” (so to speak lol – and kind of like Obama and Bush did with putin).

It could all very well be a propoganda moment, knowing the world is watching; something tells me Xi considers Miller his only real american adversary going forward. Everyone else is painfully stupid, including the president.

(Edit: I just wish the media would run with the whole “X person is the true puppet master/shadow president!” towards Miller. That shit got bannon fired QUICKLY lol).

I don’t get it how people don’t pick up on the subtle pranks and hidden messages that China is throwing on the visit.

Greeted by children (hello, Epstein), then forced to climb a gazillion stairs (hello bone spurs and cankles). They’re openly humiliating Donny and most aren’t even noticing it.

Lame. Not lame duck. The optics and protocols on this visit were a stunning example of just how little credibility he has as a human or a world leader. He is a sick, decaying, dying laughingstock and he was treated like a toddler cosplaying as a grownup.

Lame Dick President

Walked Trump like a dog around his garden.