09-04-2025
Blundering Trump has given China's cruel regime a public relations coup
For all its achievements in relieving poverty in recent decades, few are in doubt about the true nature of China 's hard-line Communist regime.
Whether it is the ruthless crushing of democracy in Hong Kong, persecuting Muslim Uighurs or threatening to invade plucky little Taiwan, it is generally – and rightly – seen as a force for bad, not good.
Certainly, the ever-lengthening tentacles of its increasingly menacing economic and diplomatic reach make it an unlikely and undeserving candidate for sympathy. In any dispute between China and a Western nation, most neutrals would be likely to side with the West. But in his relentless and reckless crusade to shake up the world order Donald Trump may be in the process of turning that on its head too.
China may be the primary target of his trade war, but much of the rest of the world, including the UK and Europe, are in the same threatening crosshairs. In fact it could be argued that Britain, Europe and the rest find themselves on the same side as China in its current dispute with the US.
Equally, it could be said that if China wins the game of economic poker with the US, Trump is more likely to have to make concessions to the rest. An extraordinary state of affairs indeed.
Before you dismiss this notion as absurd, ask yourself this: who do you want to win the tariff showdown between Trump and China? I would hazard a guess that many would plump for China – cruel, totalitarian, human rights abusing, thought controlling Communist China.
In short, in his ill-thought-out diplomatic and economic blundering, Trump may have handed China's President Xi Jinping a huge public relations coup.
It is the kind of so-called 'reputation washing' makeover that even the wealthiest dictator could not afford to purchase.
For all its many flaws, for a century or more, America has been seen in Britain and the West as generally a force for good, not bad, in the world. With Donald Trump's second presidency just three months old, that reputation is now in severe danger – with incalculable consequences.
