Xi Jinping looks abroad for confidence

When Xi Jinping looks out at the world, he seems to see history’s arc bending his way. As war in Ukraine slides towards a frozen stalemate, and intensifying horrors stalk the Middle East, Communist Party leaders sound confident that they know how to solve such crises, and that most of the world agrees with them. China puts its trust in interests coldly weighed and balanced, and in economic development. It declines to judge even the most blood-soaked tyrants and denies that universal values exist, calling them a ploy to stigmatise non-Western civilisations.In the telling of Mr Xi’s chief diplomats, events are now vindicating that chilly realism. Pragmatic, predictable China, they assert, understands what is needed to bring peace and enjoys growing respect in the developing world. They draw a contrast with Western governments that bluster about upholding moral principles, then leave poor countries to pay the price as conflicts drive millions from their homes or as sanctions cause food and fuel prices to spike. Seen from Beijing, liberal democracies are being torn apart by political arguments. America, China’s still-fearsome rival, seems ever more tempted by isolationism, starting in Ukraine. Moreover, Western unity is being sorely tested by the American government’s support for Israel in its war with Hamas, and would be shattered by Donald Trump’s return to the White House.