He committed economic suicide.

I won’t spend too much time on tariffs, other than to say they are a tax on American consumers. YOU are taking money out of your wallet and putting it in the U.S. Treasury. Hard to see how that hurts China.

But let’s focus on your second question. Yes, China’s growth rate has slowed down — to a mere 3x that of the US. It will pass the US as the world’s largest economy around 2030. It invests FAR more in public works projects abroad, building goodwill and influence. It is rapidly expanding its ties to Africa, which will see some of the fastest growth in the decades ahead. It is NOT referring to them as “shithole countries.”

Trump’s idiotic threats-based trade policies is pushing Japan closer to its traditional rival at the expense of the US alliance. He had a temper tantrum and crawled away from TPP, which brought together 40% of the global economy and isolated China; Beijing can’t believe its luck. He pushed Vietnam, which has been a rival of China for thousands of years, into Xi’s arms.

He’s arguably the best thing that ever happened for China’s “economic and geopolitical rise.”