Is China getting better at countering the US?
Beijing is not only adopting Washington’s foreign policy playbook but also improving its own.
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China’s ambition is not simply to beat the United States at its own game, but to build an alternative international architecture.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Dylan Loh
Is China getting better at managing the US? Beijing had played directly into US President Donald Trump’s penchant for pomp and pageantry in sparing no effort in laying out the literal and figurative red carpet during the latter’s state visit in May.
The optics were immaculate even as the meeting produced a modest outcome of short-term stability with no major breakthroughs. The consensus reached on “constructive strategic stability” helped build a floor for the bilateral relationship but did little to alter the underlying trajectory of structural competition and mistrust.