China has presented itself as a solid business and trade partner to the United States and other traditional allies that have been alienated by the politics of President Donald Trump, some of whom appear ready to rebuild.
Since early 2026, Chinese President Xi Jinping has hosted South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo and Irish leader Michael Martin.
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British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will visit Beijing for three days this week, while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is scheduled to visit China for the first time in late February.
Five of these visitors are treaty allies of the United States, but over the past year they have been affected by the Trump administration’s “reciprocal” trade tariffs and additional tariffs on key exports such as steel, aluminum, automobiles and auto parts.
Canada, Finland, Germany and the United Kingdom are at loggerheads in NATO this month over Mr. Trump’s desire to annex Greenland and his threat to block eight European countries, including Britain and Finland, with additional tariffs. Trump later recanted from the threat.
China’s new sales pitch
China has long sought to present itself as a viable alternative to the postwar US-led international order, but its pitch took on new energy at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual summit in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this month.
China’s Vice Premier Li Hefeng emphasized China’s continued support for multilateralism and free trade in a speech as President Trump told world leaders that the United States had become “the hottest country anywhere in the world” thanks to a surge in investment and tariff revenue, and that Europe would “try harder” to follow America’s lead.
“Economic globalization is not perfect and may cause some problems, but we cannot reject it completely and retreat into self-imposed isolation,” Li said.
“The right approach should be to find solutions together through dialogue, and we have no choice but to do so.”
Li also criticized President Trump’s “unilateral actions and trade agreements by certain countries,” referring to the trade war, saying they “clearly violate the fundamental principles and principles of the (World Trade Organization) and are seriously impacting the global economic and trade order.”
“Every country has the right to protect its legitimate rights and interests,” Li also told the WEF. This point can be understood to apply as much to China’s claims to Taiwan and elsewhere as it does to Denmark’s control over Greenland.
“In many ways, China has chosen to assume the role of a stable and responsible global actor in the midst of the US disruption. Reiterating support for the UN system and global rules is often enough to boost China’s standing, especially among countries in the Global South,” Bjorn Kappelin, an analyst at the Swedish National China Center, told Al Jazeera.
the western world is listening
John Gong, a professor of economics at the University of Foreign Business and Economics in Beijing, told Al Jazeera that the recent series of visits by European leaders to China shows that the Global North is also listening. Gong said other notable signs include Britain’s recognition of a Chinese “mega embassy” in London and developments in a years-long trade dispute over China’s exports of electric vehicles (EVs) to Europe.
Starmer is expected to pursue further trade and investment deals with the Chinese government this week, according to British media.
“The series of events that are unfolding in Europe seem to suggest that Europe’s China policy will be adjusted – for the better, of course – in the context of what is coming from the United States towards Europe,” Gong told Al Jazeera.
The shift in diplomatic calculus is also evident in Canada, which has shown a new willingness to deepen economic ties with China after several spat with Trump over the past year.
Prime Minister Carneys’ visit to Beijing was his first since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s visit in 2017, during which he agreed that Beijing would ease tariffs on Canadian agricultural exports and that Ottawa would ease tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.
President Trump slammed news of the deal, threatening to impose 100% trade tariffs on Canada if the deal goes through.
Trump said in a statement on his Truth Social platform over the weekend that Carney was “a big mistake” in thinking Canada could become “a ‘drop off port’ for China to send goods and products to the United States.”
This month’s meeting between Mr. Carney and Mr. Xi thawed relations that had been frosty for years since Canada arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in late 2018 at the behest of the United States. The Chinese government subsequently arrested two Canadians in what appears to be retaliation. They were released in 2021 after Meng reached a deferral agreement with New York prosecutors.
According to CBC, Carney told world leaders at Davos that there had been a “collapse of world order” in an apparent reference to President Trump, and then told Canada’s House of Commons this week that “almost nothing was normal now” in the United States.
In a call with President Trump this week, Carney said Ottawa has no plans yet for a free trade agreement with China but should continue to diversify its trade deals with countries other than the United States.
fill the gap
But Hanscom Smith, a former U.S. diplomat and senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson School of International Studies, told Al Jazeera that Beijing’s appeal could be weakened by other factors.
“If the U.S. becomes more transactional, it will create a vacuum, and it’s not clear to what extent China or Russia or other powers can fill that vacuum. It’s not necessarily a zero-sum game,” he told Al Jazeera. “Many countries want to have good relations with both the United States and China, and they don’t want to choose.”
One obvious concern about China is its huge global trade surplus, which soared to $1.2 trillion last year, even though it offers more reliable business deals.
Much of that gain came in the aftermath of President Trump’s trade war, as Chinese manufacturers, facing hefty U.S. tariffs and declining domestic demand, expanded their supply chains to places like Southeast Asia and found new markets beyond the United States.
China’s record trade surplus has alarmed some European leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, who called for more foreign direct investment from China in Davos, but made no mention of China’s “massive overcapacity and distortive practices” in the form of export dumping.
Lee sought to address these concerns head-on in his Davos speech. “We are never looking for a trade surplus. In addition to being the world’s factory, we also want to be the world’s market. But in many cases, when China wants to buy, other countries don’t want to sell. Trade issues often become security hurdles,” he said.
