How the 19th-century Opium War shapes Xi’s trade clash with Trump

FUZHOU, China – Climbing the ranks of the Communist Party while working in a coastal province, Chinese President Xi Jinping – the man now leading the country’s push to overtake the United States – kept a poem on his desk that helps explain why he has fought back fiercely against President Donald Trump in their trade war.

The poem, a patriotic ode to the sanctity of national interest, was written by Lin Zexu, an imperial commissioner from Fujian, the same coastal province, who oversaw China’s foreign commerce in the early 19th century. He is celebrated today in Chinese textbooks and speeches by Mr Xi as a national hero for standing up to Britain, the superpower of the day, in a confrontation over trade.