We are barely into March 2026, yet President Donald Trump’s bold foreign policy has already delivered a series of body blows to Xi Jinping’s grand vision for China’s global dominance.
Since assuming power in 2012, Xi has promoted the “China Dream” — a nationalist narrative of national rejuvenation that envisions China supplanting the United States as the world’s preeminent superpower. Central to this is his conviction that the “East is rising and the West is declining,” a belief that has shaped over a decade of CCP propaganda, military buildup, and assertive diplomacy. Xi discarded Deng Xiaoping’s prudent “hide your strength, bide your time” approach in favor of an assertive foreign policy posture, such as militarizing the South China Sea, coercing neighbors like the Philippines and Vietnam, and expanding arms exports to build influence in the Global South.
