In Sharm el-Sheikh last week, a manically selfcongratulatory Donald Trump, Gaza’s makebelieve saviour, hailed his fellow “tough guys” – tame tyrants, such as Egypt’s Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, who helped fabricate his flimsy Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal. Yet later this month, he is due to face a far less biddable tough guy: China’s leader, Xi Jinping. In the US-China race for 21st-century primacy, Xi is sprinting ahead, assisted by spur-heeled Trump’s many missteps.
It’s amazing that debate still rages, in the UK and US, about China’s regime. Its aggressive, economic empire-building, suppression of basic rights in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet, regional sabre-rattling and ubiquitous cyber-espionage, allow only one conclusion.
Even as British MPs argued over whether Beijing is an enemy or an investment opportunity, Xi was providing an unequivocal answer. China’s…