“Don’t interrupt your opponent when he is making a mistake,” one Chinese official said of Trump’s disruptive trade agenda. The moves underline a goal identified in the policy papers: To embed China so deeply in global trade that partners cannot afford to decouple under US pressure. A senior European trade diplomat dismissed Beijing’s overtures as “pure Chinese propaganda,” saying Brussels had no plans for a trade deal. “We see no need for a free-trade agreement with China right now,” a Mexican trade official said. Trump has three years left in office, and the next US administration could revert to building coalitions to contain China.
