Limping into China as Xi “holds all the cards”

The most powerful man in the world? Xi Jinping

What a difference 16 months has been. The  argument in 2025 was that the United States was going to decimate China economically — and in every other respect.

The reality is quite different today as talks begin between the two leaders, one with his tail between his legs and the price of oil over $100 a barrel.

The Chinese are licking their fingers waiting for a pacified US to meet with the powerful Chinese leader.

Here is reality

The media is Asia is chuckling at the fact that the US has come calling on the powerful in Asia, not vice versa. Tariffs were going to make China paupers on the world stage instead of a consummate power,

Fifteen months ago, as Trump 2.0 got underway, the White House radiated confidence. Trump advisers argued that sweeping tariffs would pressure Beijing to yield, redirecting the gains of a US$53 trillion economic relationship sharply in Washington’s favor.

Trump’s arrival in Beijing this week comes at a moment when, to use his own phrasing, Xi’s China “holds all the cards.”

China’s state-run Global Times goes even further, arguing that the United States is limping into the visit like a “giant with a limp” as the Iran conflict spirals, oil prices surge past US$100 a barrel, tariffs strain relations with US allies, and court rulings chip away at Washington’s leverage abroad.

Chinese media outlets relish noting that it’s Trump who has flown to Beijing in search of a trade deal — not Xi. They argue that Trump needs an agreement far more urgently than China does. At the same time, reopening the Strait of Hormuz may hinge on Xi leveraging China’s influence in Tehran. The leverage Trump once expected to wield over Beijing has become increasingly elusive.

William Pesek, “Why Trump will ‘limp’ into China and likely leave

empty-handed,” Asia Times, May 13, 2026

However, the American media has to confront reality too. The power play against China has fallen into hard times,

The president came into office planning harsher trade moves on China than on the rest of the world. Here’s why he’s had to scale them back.

When President Trump tried to force China into making concessions last year by threatening extreme tariffs, the tactic backfired, forcing the United States to pare back its goals.

Ana Swanson, “Trump’s shrinking ambitions on China,”

New York Times, May 13, 2026

The “dealmaker” looks more like the shyster who bankrupted Atlantic City than the most power person on a world stage.

American courts have tamed his tariff ambitions, but what is terribly embarrassing is that he has been humiliated by a third-rate military power in his venture in Iran, which has played havoc with oil prices, among other concerns.

“Made in China 2025”

The Chinese like to brace about how the US is mired in the Old Economy while China is roaring along and bypassing US companies,

Here, there’s the gap between the “old economy’ and the new one being created in real time to consider. Case in point: the fruits of the “Made in China 2025” scheme launched by Xi in 2015 are gaining increasing traction. Look no further than the speed with which Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD has driven past Tesla and shaken up Europe’s auto industry.

Trump’s assault on the Fed’s independence, meanwhile, seems like a ham-handed effort to remake the most globally respected US institution in the People’s Bank of China’s image. It’s putting trust in the dollar at risk just as Washington’s national debt flirts with the US$40 trillion mark. That’s adding momentum to Xi’s gambit to internationalize the yuan.

Since taking the reins, Xi has worked to increase the yuan’s use in global trade and finance. Trump’s exploits since returning to office in January 2025 — the tariffs, the policy chaos, opening the fiscal floodgates, the assault on the Fed, military adventurism from Venezuela to Iran — are eroding trust in US assets.

William Pesek, Asia Times, May 13, 2026

A losing strategy

The problem is that tariffs were never the solution. The US has not provided an economic blueprint to improve itself on a world stage and has instead become a despised trading partner. Gimmicks do not solve these problems, and the internal anger in the US is tangible,

Data this week show that US tax receipts and revenues were down 17% year-on-year in April, which is typically a peak collection month. At the same time, nearly 17 months into Trump 2.0 policies — from tariffs to surging inflation — have left households in turmoil.

A recent Gallup poll found nearly half of Americans, 47%, think economic conditions are “poor,” a seven-point increase from March, while fully 73% say things are getting worse. Another recent poll, by Fox News, finds that 70% believe the economy is getting worse, matching a record high hit in 2023.

Part of the problem is that, so far, Trump 2.0 has done little, if anything, to raise America’s competitive game. The blunt instrument of tariffs are more gimmick than recipe to rekindle America’s innovative spirit, strengthen human capital and ensure the dollar and US Treasuries remain the circulatory system of the global economy.

William Pesek, Asia Times, May 13, 2026

Surrender?

The truth is the XI does indeed hold the cards, and this is humiliating for an economy that brags to be the strongest in the world,

Rather than pushing China for broader structural changes to its economy, as Mr. Trump’s aides did in his first term, the focus now is largely on maintaining stable relations between the countries, while restoring or increasing U.S. sales of products like airplanes, ethanol, soybeans, beef and sorghum.

The remarkable shrinking of Mr. Trump’s Chinese ambitions is the result of the events of the last year, when China responded to Mr. Trump’s tariffs by cutting off the supply of rare earth minerals and magnets needed by American companies making everything from cars and weaponry to power tools.

Facing the prospect of shuttered U.S. factories and widespread economic damage, the Trump administration appears to have given up the idea of a more ambitious deal with China — widely acknowledged as America’s most problematic trading partner — even as it presses less troublesome partners more aggressively than ever before.

Ana Swanson, New York Times, May 13, 2026

Many American business leaders are also heading to China, but the truth is, they have been embarrassed by the ascendency of a power that was to be used, not one that is dominating, which is happening today.

Having a communistic country dominate us is truly humiliating.