How Xi Jinping's Global Ambitions Could Thrive As Trump Turns Inward

China has long been expected to become the world's next superpower due to its large population and staggering economic growth over the last few decades. Until recently, most experts put its rise to global dominance towards the end of the 21st century. Then along came Donald Trump.

Promising protectionism and an 'America first' foreign policy, Trump appears to be withdrawing the US from its role as a global leader. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is now dead in the water, and the Paris Agreement on combating climate change is under serious threat, given Trump's public-spirited belief that the problem is a merely a conspiracy.

With these processes ongoing, China has found itself in a strange position. Previously, it had greatly benefitted from US-led globalisation and international trade, while avoiding taking a strong ideological stand of support. Now, China stands as the largest proponent of globalisation in 2017, and its current leader, Xi Jinping, has used this to score a series of victories for Chinese soft-power.

But, as this article by Tom Phillips shows, it is hard to tell how serious China really is about these efforts. Well-received speeches at Davos aside, Xi's China is still far from liberal or globalised. Markets are controlled in ways that heavily favour Chinese corporations, and Chinese people themselves appear to have little appetite to take on the world's problems.

Ending on a slightly humorous note, the article seeks to answer the question of Chinese global leadership. Can it really claim to have won the right to be a leading superpower, if it only got there because its rivals inexplicably stopped trying?