If Donald Trump’s presidency has any theme (beyond self-promotion), it’s that his “America First” agenda will Make America Great Again. Unfortunately for the American people, if Trump’s maneuvers and machinations have made any nation greater, it’s been China, not the United States.

During Trump’s first term, he treated China as a strategic rival and often talked of checking its rise. His administration complained that China was seeking to “challenge American power” and “erode American security and prosperity”. But during his first year back in the White House, Trump – in governing by whim and impulse with little strategic vision - has done lots to Make China Great Again.

His shortsighted policies have enabled China to gain on, and at times move ahead of, the US in numerous ways. That was true when Trump’s benighted crusade against scientific research weakened the US’s competitive position vis-à-vis China. That was also the case when Trump so mucked up his trade war with China that Beijing emerged victorious after it forced Trump to back down. That was true, as well, when Trump ceded long-term leadership to China in several critical industries of the future, including electric cars, wind turbines and batteries.

Trump’s imperialistic designs on Venezuela and Greenland have made it harder to argue against China’s own designs on Taiwan. What’s more, Trump’s nonstop trade war, his threats against Greenland, and his torrent of insults against our European allies have badly undermined the western alliance, and that, too, will weaken the US and strengthen China.

In a newly released survey of 26,000 people in 21 countries, the European Council of Foreign Relations found not only that Trump’s policies are helping make China great, but that the US’s traditional adversaries fear it less, while its allies feel more distant from the US. In a policy brief accompanying that poll, Timothy Garton Ash, an emeritus history professor at Oxford and........

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