Daily · West Post
I n a world so filled by Donald Trump caricatures of reality, it is difficult not to imagine China 's president heading to the US for an Ultimate Fighting Championship bout in the 250th anniversary amphitheatre built for gladiatorial combat on the White House lawn. If Xi Jinping , China’s powerful and deeply strategic leader, were to spring into the ring it would be as a super athlete. By comparison, Trump would be more likely to portray the pantomime wrestling clown.
While China is thinking strategically and maneuvering with skill, Trump, malodorously, ends up slumped against the ropes, befuddled and battered by local tactics. Xi is being hosted by Trump in Washington for his two day trip, where he will be welcomed at the White House and treated to a military flypast. The pair last met in May, when Trump was feted in Beijing .
Donald Trump and Xi Jinping during an arrival ceremony on 23 September, 2026 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland (Getty) When operating in a world where America’s leaders believe, wrongly, that European allies are being overrun by anti-Christian immigrants, that Nato partners are legitimate targets for possible US invasion, that Russia ’s claims to a huge chunk of Ukraine seem reasonable, and that the president thinks he should be king, China sees opportunity. China has taken it. Beijing is the world’s biggest importer of Iranian oil, paying some $31 billion for more than 80 per cent of Iran ’s oil exports in 2025, the US government estimates.
The figures could be a lot higher. US president Donald Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping speak as Xi arrives ahead of a state visit (Reuters) This money has been spent on dual-use technology for missiles and drones bought from, or through, China by Iran. Those weapons have been used to attack American allies, and American forces, in the Gulf and beyond as part of Iran’s retaliation for the US-Israeli war launched against it in February.
That war has been a disaster for Trump. Oil prices have surged. The US military’s inventory of weapons has been dangerously depleted.
And as a result of reporting on this debacle and other scandals, some of the biggest media outlets in America have now been banned from the White House. Trump arrives at the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday (Getty) An enfeebled America is being delivered to Xi and, while Trump faces a possible midterm election wipeout for his Republican party at the midterms in November, he’s unlikely to step up his sanctions attacks on Beijing. Not least because of inflation in his own country and a negligible reduction in Chinese exports into America - not that Trump understands that.
The US president seems to think tariffs are foreign subsidies paid by foreign nations when of course they are an import duty paid by importers - Americans. So China can continue to bleed America of treasure and global prestige through Iran. Beijing has been a good friend to Moscow too.
As has Trump - although he hasn’t yet appreciated that there’s little strategic benefit to taking Putin’s side. He cut military aid to Kyiv and forced Ukraine to look elsewhere for intelligence feeds while backing Russia in talks. But the US has been erratic - and again strategically that is to China’s advantage.
The Trump administration has continued sanctions against Russia, although its members would much rather be doing business there. So America’s reputation in Europe is in a ditch for no economic advantage. That edge has gone to China.
Beijing has been helping Russia’s war economy survive without obviously supplying weapons to the Kremlin. Western governments estimate China supplies about 70 per cent of Russia's imported machine tools and 90 per cent of its imported microelectronics. These gizmos go directly into missiles, drones, glide bombs, combat aircraft and other weapons production.
Narendra Modi stands alongside Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin during the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi earlier this month (AFP/Getty) Meanwhile, China bought $85bn of Russian fossil fuels in 2024, helping preserve the export earnings and tax revenues on which the wider Russian war economy depends. Then we get to the “strategic minerals” that Trump knows the US economy needs - and Xi is decades ahead of him. China’s strategic efforts over the last 30 years, at least, have gone into security supplies of raw materials and now it controls most of the global markets for most of the minerals we most need.
According to the International Energy Agency , China dominates the market for the 19 or 20 most essential minerals for energy storage and production. The Democratic Republic of Congo mines two thirds of the world’s cobalt, but China refines three quarters of global production. China produces 83 per cent of the world’s tungsten and about 98 per cent of gallium, You can’t have a high tech industry, high tech weapons, or a 21st century economy without the minerals that China controls.
Trump’s answer to this has been to want t source materials elsewhere by invading Greenland , which has untapped resources, or annexing Canada. China’s leaders will be sniggering all the way to their meeting with the “world’s most powerful man”. The US needs China in Iran, in Russia, and it needs to keep China wrapped close into the US economy.
Trump may not know this as he reels about the global stage and Xi won’t jeer and play to the braying gallery. Xi’s mere presence will cheer Trump up, perhaps, like a new cape, or some spangled boots so he can continue the pantomime.
Source: The Independent
