The crowd in the formal dining room atop the State Department was exuberant: China’s incoming president, Xi Jinping, the guest of honor , stood on the podium, champagne glass in hand. The businessmen, diplomats, and China handlers mingled, wreathed in smiles. Not because it was Valentine’s Day. The Americans saw the son of a reformist Chinese leader, a cautious, pragmatic, technocrat who had built his career in coastal provinces that embraced markets and global trade. They believed he would be friendly to the United States, even compliant, just like his most recent predecessors.

How wrong they were. Xi has turned out to be the toughest, most irreconcilable Chinese leader the U.S. has faced since the opening of formal relations between the two countries in 1979. He wants China to su

See Full Page