LONDON • The Chinese government can be excused for feeling put upon at the moment. For literally not a day passes by without China being at the receiving end of some foreign hostile action.

Whether it's the blacklisting of Huawei - the Chinese telecom giant - in key Western markets, the threat of trade and tariffs wars or the holding of military exercises such as the unprecedented combined naval drill which the US, France, Japan and Australia staged last week on the approaches to the South China Sea; all such moves are rightly interpreted in Beijing as designed to restrict China's room for manoeuvre.