What does China make of Donald Trump’s adventurism? In some respects it is displeased, since his actions have harmed Chinese interests around the world. But it is probably content to see the Western alliance weakened. And if the end result is a Chinese sphere of influence,
Xi Jinping may be satisfied.
Mr Xi isn’t the only one trying to make sense of Mr Trump’s foreign policy. America’s president operates by instinct rather than ideology. But his flexibility belies the fact that within the MAGA movement there are coherent—and competing—ideologies about
how America should exercise power
in the world. It is not yet clear which faction will prevail.
