In a TV interview, former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull offered an interesting perspective when asked about what approach China under President Xi Jinping may adopt in response to US President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariffs’ policy.
Here is how Turnbull drew a comparison of the approaches and personality traits of Trump and Xi.
I think China will take advantage, massive advantage of Trump. My prediction will be that President Xi will aim to be the exact opposite of Trump. Where Trump is chaotic, he will be consistent.
Where Trump is rude and abusive, he’ll be respectful. Where Trump is erratic, he will be consistent. And what that will do is build trust with countries, and there will be many countries who will, looking at China on the one hand and Trump on the other, will find China a more attractive partner.
So Trump is not just helping Vladimir Putin on the battlefield in Ukraine, which is bad enough, but by his own conduct he’s providing an opportunity for China this time to take a different approach than the one they did with Trump 1. And really, as I said, they should be the anti-Trump. I mean, they don’t have to be against him, they just have to be the opposite of him in terms of style and the way of dealing with people.
And exactly this is what President Xi conveyed to the world via X
“With the European Commission, we must show ourselves as strong: Europe must continue to work on all the necessary counter-measures,” he said on X, suggesting that China and the EU should simply team up on the issue.
“China and Europe should fulfil their international responsibilities… and jointly resist unilateral bullying practices,” Xi said.
Nearly two weeks earlier on March 28, Xi called out Trump, though without naming him, for stoking cold war.
Addressing the Boao Forum for Asia in China’s southern province of Hainan – modelled after the World Economic Forum in Davos – the Chinese president warned that “ those who ignore the trend of the times toward openness would be left behind and assigned to the dustbin of history,”
“The cold war and zero-sum mentality looks out of place in today’s world. Arrogance or only focusing one’s own interests will get nowhere. Only peaceful development and cooperation can truly bring win-win or all-win results…,” Xi underscored without any direct reference to the US counterpart.
It is about time for Europe as a whole to figure out as to whether continue applying the US-colored geo-political lens or break free and chart its own path for geo-political sovereignty as well as geo-economic independence – a regime that should ensure respect for all and peaceful conflict resolution.
