China Uses Annual Congress to Tout Xi’s Global Leadership Role
- China has doubled its diplomatic spending since Xi took office
- Beijing has used economic clout to punish Taiwan, South Korea
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President Xi Jinping is moving swiftly to take the mantle of the world’s free trade champion in the era of Donald Trump, even as China again demonstrates its ability to deploy trade as a weapon.
Chinese officials have used this week’s National People’s Congress to burnish Xi’s credentials as an advocate for globalization, ahead of the country’s first Silk Road summit in May.