Is it too late to halt the slide towards all-out confrontation between China and the western democracies? An apparently conciliatory speech last week by Xi Jinping led some observers to suggest China’s president may want to mend fences. But a change of tone in Beijing will not cut much ice in Washington unless Xi’s aggressive policies change, too. Looked at another way, Xi’s speech would not have been out of place at a Militant tendency meeting circa 1976 or, for that matter, in the old Soviet politburo. The list of western grievances with Xi’s China, often spilling over into undisguised anger, grows longer almost by the day.

Source: The Guardian June 06, 2021 07:52 UTC