IT SOUNDS ODD, however hints stay piling up that President Donald Trump is tempted by way of a large, gorgeous handle China’s Xi Jinping. That runs counter to campaign-trail vows to hit China with crippling price lists. A perfect-power cut price that Mr Xi may just settle for—in all probability bundling financial trade-offs with a divvying-up of the arena into spheres of affect—would for sure outrage hawkish Trump aides, from the nationwide safety adviser, Mike Waltz, to the secretary of state, Marco Rubio. Congress can be appalled and allies in Europe and Asia aghast. And but, Mr Trump helps to keep signalling that he’s in dealmaking mode. He has invited China to assist with peacemaking in Ukraine, says he would somewhat now not impose swingeing Chinese language price lists and wondered whether or not TikTok, a Chinese language-owned app, in reality harms American nationwide safety.
A large, gorgeous Trump handle China?
![A large, gorgeous Trump handle China? A large, gorgeous Trump handle China?](https://www.economist.com/content-assets/images/20250201_IRD000.jpg)