The Trump-Xi summit exposes a US disadvantage in the Global South
Washington asks for alignment while Beijing offers strategic flexibility without military entanglement.
Founding director of the China Institute and Mactaggart Research Chair Emeritus at the University of Alberta.
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to the United States came with all the choreography: a B-2 flyover, pandas, a Nixon-era toast. But for anyone watching from the Global South, the spectacle was beside the point. More important was Beijing’s emphasis on “constructive strategic stability” in its relationship with Washington. For capitals from Riyadh to New Delhi to Jakarta, the summit offered a glimpse of how they may navigate relations with the two powers over the rest of this decade.
Beijing emerged from the summit offering diplomatic cover without military entanglement. Washington, by contrast, came to the meeting already embroiled in the nearly seven-month US-Israeli war on Iran, pressing allies on trade, reasserting US dominance in Latin America, and demanding that the Global South choose sides in its effort to contain China, all while Trump himself toasted Xi and hailed the summit as a success. For governments across the Global South being urged to distance themselves from Beijing, that contrast will not go unnoticed.
For governments elsewhere across the Global South, this creates a difficult set of choices. They are pressed to distance themselves from China, even as Trump himself re-engages. They are asked to absorb tariffs and supply-chain shocks, while Washington and Beijing extend their own trade truce for another two months. The result is a growing sense that other countries are expected to bear the costs of great-power rivalry while Washington and Beijing retain the freedom to negotiate with each other.