- Xi has been supremely confident that China will dominate the rest of the century… “Change is coming that hasn’t happened in 100 years,” the Chinese leader told Vladimir Putin after their 40th in-person chat, in Moscow in March 2023. “And we are driving this change together.”
- Many in Washington and New York policy circles essentially agreed with Xi as they accepted the narrative of America’s managed decline.
- Not President Donald Trump. In a spectacular move, he extracted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife from Caracas on January 3 and is now in the process of taking down Iran’s theocracy.
American and Israeli strikes have severely degraded Iran’s ability to wage war.
Perhaps more important, they are finishing off Xi Jinping’s most cherished narrative of the “China Dream” of national rejuvenation and dominance. In Beijing these days, just about everyone knows China’s arrogant leader was wrong about the long-term direction of the United States.
Xi has been supremely confident that China will dominate the rest of the century, and he has not been reluctant to express his belief. “Change is coming that hasn’t happened in 100 years,” the Chinese leader told Vladimir Putin after their 40th in-person chat, in Moscow in March 2023. “And we are driving this change together.”
Xi’s favorite phrase of recent years reflected this view: “The East is rising, and the West is declining.”
Many in Washington and New York policy circles essentially agreed with Xi as they accepted the narrative of America’s managed decline.
Not President Donald Trump. In a spectacular move, he extracted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife from Caracas on January 3 and is now in the process of taking down Iran’s theocracy.