Xi Jinping thinks he’s figured Trump out, and he may have. From Simplicius at simplicius76.substack.com:
RAND think tank, famous for its influential policy papers which have shaped US-Russian relations, has released an eye-opening call for a change of course on China. This comes by way of the latest Trump-China escalations which, it appears, have greatly worried insiders of the ‘deep state’ system; enough so that for once they have begun swallowing their pride and envisioning a calmer, more placating approach toward China so as not to upset the global status quo too much.
The outline of the paper is here: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA4107-1.html
https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA4107-1.html
And the full, over-100-page-long PDF here: https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RRA4100/RRA4107-1/RAND_RRA4107-1.pdf
Their key findings are that China and the US should strive to achieve a modus vivendi by each accepting the political legitimacy of the other, constraining efforts to undermine each other, at least to a reasonable degree.
Most significantly—and tellingly—RAND prescribes for the US leadership in particular to reject ideas of “absolute victory” over China, as well as to accept the One China Policy and stop provoking China with military-minded visits to Taiwan designed specifically to keep China threatened and on edge.
Xi is pulling a Stalin with generals or CCP is consolidating?
It is not your father’s military and the time for partitioning is long gone.