Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Gordon Chang: Xi Jinping spent his summit with Trump throwing insults—and to Chang, it revealed weakness, not strength.
Chang says that on the first day of the summit, Xi invoked the "Thucydides Trap" and, more pointedly, his "New Era" concept—both meant as digs at the United States. The "New Era," Chang explains, describes a world where China dominates and America is nowhere to be seen.
The tell, he argues, is the choreography. Xi welcomed Trump, needled him—and the moment Trump left, Putin landed in Beijing. Chang ties it back to Moscow in March 2023, when Xi reportedly told Putin as they parted: change unseen in 100 years is coming, and the two of them are driving it together. That, Chang says, is what "New Era" really means.
But staging insults and shuffling in Putin right after isn't the behavior of a confident superpower, in Chang's read—it's pettiness and theatrics.
"This is a sign of an insecure China."
Gordon Chang: Xi Jinping spent his summit with Trump throwing insults—and to Chang, it revealed weakness, not strength.
Chang says that on the first day of the summit, Xi invoked the "Thucydides Trap" and, more pointedly, his "New Era" concept—both meant as digs at the United States. The "New Era," Chang explains, describes a world where China dominates and America is nowhere to be seen.
The tell, he argues, is the choreography. Xi welcomed Trump, needled him—and the moment Trump left, Putin landed in Beijing. Chang ties it back to Moscow in March 2023, when Xi reportedly told Putin as they parted: change unseen in 100 years is coming, and the two of them are driving it together. That, Chang says, is what "New Era" really means.
But staging insults and shuffling in Putin right after isn't the behavior of a confident superpower, in Chang's read—it's pettiness and theatrics.
"This is a sign of an insecure China."
