Sir Keir Starmer is not the only world leader fighting for his political future. Although the substance of the Donald Trump-Xi Jinping talks are about tariffs, trade, supply issues (rare earth metals etc), fentanyl, Taiwan, and most importantly Iran, the main purpose of the meeting for both leaders will be their future political survival. This is the essential subtext that you will probably not hear about from the BBC and most legacy media.

Xi needs a successful deal with Trump to show that he is still useful as Secretary General of the CCP

Xi needs a successful deal with Trump to show that he is still useful as Secretary General of the CCP

Trump needs to bag wins soon to bring to prevent a Democrat sweep of Congress in November’s midterm elections. Lose both houses of Congress and the US president can be sure that impeachment will follow. As Democrat Illinois representative Delia Ramirez has asserted, the Democratic leadership needs to ‘build up the case [for impeachment] so that when we are in power in January, we’ve created the conditions…we’ve done the factchecking, we’ve done the shadow hearings, everything we need to be able to impeach.’

A beneficial trade deal with China would be a win for Trump, particularly if it was combined with China ceasing to import Iranian oil by train and sending it missiles by return.

Less understood is that Xi needs a successful deal to give him a shot at, not just another five years in office as General Secretary of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) at the National Congress in 2027, but also a shot at regaining the dictatorial powers that he has lost in the last two years.

To recap in brief the story of Xi’s partial defenestration; at the third plenum in July 2024, Xi, overweight and partial to expensive liquor,........

© The Spectator