Trump and Xi Have Much More on Their Plate Than Trade

We wrote earlier this week that a lot is riding on President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s dinner this weekend over what we can only imagine will be charred Argentinian beef. We didn’t really express then just exactly how much is at stake.

As John Mickelthwait notes, China and the U.S. seem to be stumbling toward the sort of great-power/rising-power conflict that has sparked major wars in the past, from the Peloponnesian to the World ones. But history is not destiny, John writes; cooler heads could have prevented World War I, and they may yet avert a China-U.S. war. Cool heads seem to be in short supply in the Trump administration, which has mostly approached China with belligerence so far. Xi and the Chinese have made mistakes too; but they seem to be learning on the fly and making smart, conflict-avoiding choices, John writes. Trump may not give much ground at tomorrow’s dinner, but there's reason to hope Xi has learned the lessons of history and will be patient: “The rising power that waits is the one that probably wins.” Read the whole thing.