Xi Jinping’s 'anti-American party': How bullies lose friends - Just ask Trump

When Elon Musk launched the “American Party” in July, it was less a political movement than a personal rupture - a very public break with US President Donald Trump, born of frustration with a leader who treated allies like enemies and diplomacy like a reality show. Musk, on his part, wanted to reboot America.

But halfway around the world, another kind of party seems to be taking shape this week in China. We may very well call it "Anti-American Party". Though the jury is still out on whether we should credit Chinese President Xi Jinping or Trump as its real creator. But what's clear is that the "Anti-American Party" is anti-American not just in name but in ambition. Xi Jinping’s version isn’t domestic, digital, or libertarian. It’s global, authoritarian, and unmistakably anti-American.


During the Victory Day parade on Wednesday, Xi convened what looked less like a summit and more like a coronation. At his side stood Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Behind them, a wall of hypersonic missiles and goose-stepping soldiers. The stage was Tiananmen Square. The symbolism was deliberate.

As the Economist wrote in an article, for decades, Washington has been the default venue for world affairs. The UN convenes in New York. Nato answers to Washington. The G7 takes its cues from the West. But as more than two dozen heads of state gathered in Tianjin and Beijing - many of them openly adversarial to the United States - a new stage was built.

Xi Jinping is making the case that China, not the United States, is now the anchor of global stability and prosperity. And whether intentionally or not, Donald Trump helped construct it.

Why it matters

• Trump’s unorthodox, often confrontational foreign policy has left many countries, including traditional US allies, questioning Washington’s reliability.
• From trade wars to tariff threats, and from undermining Nato to wielding unilateral sanctions, Trump’s America is pushing others-willingly or not-into China’s gravitational pull.
• “The origin of uncertainty today is America, which is unleashing trade wars with almost everyone, and undermining its own network of military alliances and security partnerships,” the Economist notes, highlighting the cost of Trump’s confrontational approach to foreign policy.
• “To see the cost of Trump’s bullying, tally the world leaders flocking to China,” the Economist said in its blunt analysis.
• And that’s exactly what Xi did. On full display this week was China’s convening power-not just with autocrats, but with once-West-leaning nations now hedging their bets.
• “This week will be remembered as one in which the world shifted fundamentally,” said Josef Gregory Mahoney, professor of international relations at East China Normal University.

Zoom in: Trump the catalyst
At the heart of this transformation is a vacuum-one created not by Xi's charm offensive, but by Trump's bullying and Washington’s abdication of its global role.

Trump’s foreign policy-equal parts economic warfare and erratic bravado-has eroded the trust of allies and emboldened rivals. His administration has slapped tariffs on friend and foe alike, pulled back from multilateral institutions, and turned international diplomacy into a running grievance list.

Trump has embraced punishment as policy. India, once hailed as a strategic counterweight to China, found itself the target of steep tariffs. He simultaneously cozied up to Pakistan-India’s longtime rival. That double-hit was one of reasons why PM Narendra Modi attended the SCO meet in Tianjin, where he met with Xi and Putin in a visibly warm triad. It was PM Modi's first trip to China in seven years.

It's not without reason that photos of the three leaders - Xi, Modi and Putin -smiling, holding hands went viral. Just months earlier, such a scene would’ve been unthinkable.

Between the lines
Trump’s erratic leadership has made China look like a more predictable, stable, and pragmatic global partner-at least in relative terms.
On trade:
While Trump flips between tariffs and praise, Xi offers economic carrots.
China is already the top trading partner for over 100 countries. Its pitch: We don’t lecture. We just build.
On sanctions:
Trump’s extraterritorial use of sanctions has spooked countries worldwide.
China and Russia are moving off the dollar. Even Europe is exploring a “global euro.”
On multilateralism:
Xi cloaks his ambitions in UN language, calling for “democratization of global governance.” In Tianjin, that meant restoring the UN Charter, not obeying “rules” made in Washington or Brussels.
“We want the UN Charter back-not someone else’s in-house rules,” said one SCO diplomat, paraphrasing China’s official line.
On security:
China and Russia unveiled deeper defense ties. Kim reportedly offered military support for Russia’s Ukraine war.

The rise of the “Xi doctrine”
China’s counter-narrative is deceptively simple: stability, predictability, multilateralism. Xi is positioning himself not as a disruptor, but as a fixer of global disorder-disorder unleashed, in Beijing’s telling, by an unhinged America.

"Global governance has reached a new crossroads," Xi declared at the SCO summit, couching his vision in the language of multilateralism. But his aim isn’t to empower smaller nations or preserve liberal norms. His goal is a world of strong regional powers, each dominant in its own sphere-an order in which China, not the United States, calls the shots in Asia.

There’s no small irony in Xi cloaking this vision in the vocabulary of the United Nations. State media now routinely refer to “UN-centered governance,” a barely veiled swipe at the US-led “rules-based international order,” which Beijing sees as code for Western discretion masquerading as universal law. China wants a multipolar world-with Beijing at the centre.

The architecture replacing unipolarity

• Xi isn’t just building influence. He’s building institutions:
• A new SCO Development Bank, modeled on BRICS’ bank
• Visa-free travel between China and Russia
• Calls for a BRICS currency
• Closer ties with ASEAN, OPEC+, and the Gulf states
• Together, these groupings form a parallel world order-outside Western vetoes, without Nato-style obligations.
• Xi’s vision? A "just and equitable global governance system"-coded language for big powers controlling their regions without Western interference.

What they’re saying

• The Economist: “China’s boast to be an anchor of stability now rings true-at least in relative terms… Mr. Xi’s guest list does not demonstrate that China yet runs a new world order. But it does show how much damage Mr. Trump is doing to American interests.”
• Michael Schuman, The Atlantic: “Trump gave America’s adversaries an opportunity they haven’t seized. But they’re showing up to Xi’s party anyway.”
• Neil Thomas, Asia Society Policy Institute: “This week is a diplomatic triumph for Beijing. But China is still years away from matching US power in finance, security and technology.”
• Sergey Radchenko, Johns Hopkins University: “Chinese leaders still see Western countries as a unit… and they need Russia as a counterbalance.”

The military message
While economic realignment is subtle, military symbolism is blunt. Xi's parade wasn’t just about hardware. It was about hierarchy. Putin on one side. Kim on the other. The old Cold War adversaries now shoulder to shoulder. A pointed reminder that while the US once saw China and Russia as enemies of each other, they now share a common goal: ending US dominance.

Xi warned the world is “faced with a choice of peace or war.” But his choice of company-two nuclear-armed pariahs under Western sanctions-made his subtext plain.

Trump’s response? A Truth Social post dripping with sarcasm.

Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov responded with barely concealed amusement: “I think not without irony, he said that these three are allegedly plotting against the United States.”

The limits of Beijing’s new order
To be clear, Xi is not yet king of a new world order. There are deep contradictions among his allies. India and China have unresolved border skirmishes. Russia and China compete for influence in Central Asia. The SCO is no Nato.

As the Atlantic's Michael Schuman put it, “Trump gave America’s adversaries an opportunity they haven’t seized.” China, despite its moment of diplomatic theater, has failed to make major inroads with Europe. Its aggressive posturing in the South China Sea continues to alienate Southeast Asian neighbors.

Still, the momentum matters. For countries tired of US hegemony but wary of Chinese control, the emerging system offers a third path: non-Western, multi-aligned, and increasingly organized.

And while Xi may not yet lead a cohesive bloc, he has what superpowers uniquely possess-the ability to convene, to absorb contradictions, and to shape the future just by showing up.

Xi doesn’t have to replace the American-led order in one grand move. He only has to keep making it irrelevant. Trump, with every outburst and tariff, is helping him do just that.

(With inputs from agencies)