When President Trump arrives in China in mid-May for a planned meeting with President Xi Jinping, he may expect to strike trade deals or reset the often troubled bilateral relationship. But he should temper those expectations, according to Jacob Dreyer, an American editor and writer based in Shanghai.
Dreyer recalls moving to Shanghai from Virginia in 2008, when China still looked up to America. Back then, being American was enough to land jobs at top schools, where students sought proximity to someone from the "beautiful country" of wealth and cultural power. Now, that dynamic has shifted.
"This isn't the same country that once looked to a U.S. president's visit as a moment of global validation," Dreyer writes. "It is a country where the realization has dawned that it may have learned all it can from America and has begun to chart its own course."
Deng Xiaoping once said, "If China wants to be rich and strong, it needs America." But under Trump's abortive tariff wars, conflict with Iran, and allegiance to financial markets, America has transformed from a model to emulate into a troublesome distraction to be managed. With sinking approval ratings and potential midterm losses, Trump arrives in Beijing a more diminished figure than perhaps any visiting U.S. president.
China's leaders, aware of Trump's weakness and perfidy, are unlikely to strike meaningful bargains. His actions only strengthen China's Communist-ruled system by making it look superior by comparison.
"Mr. Trump has accelerated this shift. China's people have watched with a mix of fascination and revulsion as the president... has completed America's transformation from a model to emulate to a troublesome distraction to be managed."