AA Edit | China Holds Cards for Trump Meet

As he boards US Air Force One to Beijing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, Mr Donald Trump might come to regret what could easily turn out to be the biggest blunder of his second term — declaring war on Iran. Unable to proclaim victory in a credible way and stop his counter blockade of the Persian Gulf while pressing Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, Mr Trump goes to China when the image of his country is at a low ebb so as not to give him any leverage in a summit that could be one of the most consequential in years.

When Mr Trump went to Beijing in 2017, China was the US’s biggest trading partner and America was the world’s premier superpower. Nine years on, China’s ambition to be recognised as a competing superpower is closer to fulfilment as it appears confident of surpassing the US even as the latter fades under the shadow of a war it cannot win.

Today, Mr Trump may be inclined to prod China into taking greater interest in the Gulf standoff and getting the strait open because the chokepoint is doing more harm to the free movement of China’s imported oil. Will China oblige is what the world would be watching for with interest as the global economy is being shot to smithereens with the strait virtually closed.

The war was not Mr Trump’s first big failure in international relations. Global tariffs preceded it, provoking a trade war which China nullified by strangling the supply of rare earths and minerals. And then there was Greenland and the attacks on the staunchest of US allies in Europe. Considering Mr Trump’s unpopular anti-immigration policies and his brazen attacks on American institutions, the US slide may have been easily spotted.

After bombing Iran, on what moral ground can Mr Trump confront China on its Taiwan stance and China may have a point to make on the US arming the island too. Even in the matter of trade between the two great powers that has declined post-tariffs, America may need China more as the latter has moved on from extreme dependence on exports to the US by diversifying so much as to have become the leading trading partner with 120 countries now and boasting a trade surplus that crossed the trillion dollar mark recently.