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Trump may have started this global trade war, but Xi’s winning it

Lisa Visentin North Asia Correspondent November 4, 2025 — 5.00am

When it comes to braggadocio and relentless self-promotion on the world stage, no leader is a match for Donald Trump and there are few who would even try.

But Xi Jinping’s efforts to recast China as the chief defender of global free trade and stable supply chains require their own breathtaking audacity.

The Chinese president stepped onto the summit stage at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in South Korea last week and evangelised to a room of world leaders, Anthony Albanese included, about the need to “ join hands rather than part ways ” and safeguard free trade in the face of “rough seas”.

It helped X

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