Xi meets Trump – two visions collide

Editorial / 21 September 2026 The link between war, energy prices and Britain’s cost-of-living crisis 21 September 2026 Editorial / 20 September 2026 Liberal dilemmas as the ruling class seeks a new vehicle for fragmented Britain 20 September 2026 Editorial / 18 September 2026 Tom Watson, Palantir and post-Starmer Labour — which side are they on? 18 September 2026 Editorial / 17 September 2026 Time to lift Palestine Action proscription 17 September 2026 Editorial / 16 September 2026 TUC’s bold vision for change undermined by facing both ways on EU 16 September 2026 Editorial / 15 September 2026 Electors have the right to their candidates. Let Galloway stand 15 September 2026 Editorial / 15 September 2026 Unions should back political donations cap 15 September 2026 THE meeting this week of the presidents of the United States and the People’s Republic of China could scarcely come at a more critical moment.

Donald Trump and Xi Jinping will confer as two already-disastrous wars threaten to spin out of control, in Ukraine and in the Gulf, the latter the consequence of Washington’s Israel-assisted bovine aggression.

Alarm is also mounting at the dangers posed by artificial intelligence, with the possibility of human extermination being repeatedly raised.

Further, growing levels of debt threaten to deepen problems in a global capitalist economy which has yet to fully recover from the crash of 2008.

The menace of climate change is also developing apace, powerfully assisted by the US administration’s withdrawal from climate treaties and boosting of fossil fuel industries.

All of these crises are rooted in the workings of imperialism today, in the dynamics for its ceaseless drive for capital accumulation on a global scale, its search for the greatest possible profit through international competition and coercion.

In Trump this failing system has an appropriate, if highly dangerous, lead representative. His actions, animated both by a bullying “America First” aggression and a drive for personal and financial self-aggrandisement, have made every aspect of the threats facing the world worse.

Yet for all his bluster and military adventures, Trump approaches his summit with Xi as the weaker party in some respects.

Alone in the world China successfully stood up to Trump’s tariffs and forced Washington to declare a trade war truce through carefully targeted counter-measures.

China has also advanced constructive proposals for resolving the other problems facing humanity, including the international regulation of AI.

In contrast to Trump, Beijing continues to uphold international law and the authority of the United Nations — thin defences against the depredations of imperialism but a base to build on rather than an edifice to be torn down.

It has proposed solutions to the wars in Ukraine and the Gulf, as well as strongly opposing Israel’s assault on the Palestinian people.

Xi also leads a cohesive society developing apace along almost every indicator of human well-being. Trump’s US by contrast is choking on its own divisions, including rampant racism, the removal of all restraints on private and corporate greed and the negation of the rights notionally provided for under the constitution.

Because of this it is, alas, unlikely that the meeting will lead to any great breakthroughs on major issues, with Trump still floundering around as his aggression in the Gulf, like his trade conflicts, runs into deeper and deeper trouble, when he is not obsessing about his new White House ballroom and the triumphal arch he proposes to erect in Washington.

Rather, it will provide a study in contrasts, between statesmanship and piracy, between a vision of a peaceful and equitable world resolving problems through diplomatic discussion and the law of the jungle, between a developing socialist perspective and decaying imperialism.

Ultimately, the meeting between Xi and Trump is a meeting of a plausible future for the international order and a dystopian present. Xi and the Communist Party of China he leads bear much of the hopes of the world in the present crisis.

ANDY BURNHAM should immediately think again about his decision to drag Britain deeper into the war in Yemen by further arming Saudi Arabia.

Britain has been waging an indirect war against the Yemeni people for over a decade. It is up to its neck in the blood of the people of one of the poorest countries on Earth.

Burnham’s move will only intensify the misery caused by British-backed Saudi intervention. He should reverse course.

Eyes Left / 16 September 2026 Capitalist competition kills – naturally, artificially and profitably 16 September 2026 Even the oligarchs of the artificial intelligence industries are warning that their creations have the capacity for the ultimate destruction of the planet and its population. ANDREW MURRAY suggests that there might just be other solutions

Features / 21 May 2026 The Trump-Xi summit: stalemate or stabilisation? 21 May 2026 JENNY CLEGG looks at the key points that defined the China-US relationship, for now

Middle East / 25 March 2026 Talks, then bombs: Is Washington rehearsing the same trap on Iran? 25 March 2026 RAMZY BAROUD and ROMANA RUBEO analyse how the US has consistently negotiated in bad faith to secure the element of surprise in military attack