China, after all, has its own problems. Economic growth has slowed over the years as the country transitions from a dirty, old industrial model to one oriented around artificial intelligence, green energy, robotics and other advanced technologies. Many ordinary Chinese aren’t sure how they or their children will fit into that brave new world. There is gloom over things such as high youth unemployment and the sense that rural communities are being left behind. The uncertainty is causing many to shun marriage and having children, which is causing a population decline. A confident, dynamic America once served as a symbol that challenges like these could be overcome. Now, for many, that source of comfort is gone.
Still, there is a clear sense about the need to move past America. Mr. Trump will be gone in two years, but Mr. Xi can rule for as long as he wants and has laid out ambitious plans that are likely to survive him. Those plans include a China that is at the center of new types of energy, the use of data and technologies like artificial intelligence for urban management, the delivery of public services, cheaper health care and better access to education. Chinese people also see that the world is increasingly open to adopting Chinese technology, products, investment and other solutions, maybe even its governance ideas.
For Americans, it’s a strange sensation to see a society that, in many ways, is passing us by. But just as Deng Xiaoping, after the chaotic decades of Mao Zedong’s rule, looked to America to repair his country, perhaps America should now look more at what China is doing right. We don’t need to take on its political system — China, of course, hasn’t adopted ours. But when it comes to industrial focus, farsighted infrastructure investment and long-term national planning, there is now much that we can learn from China.
It’s encouraging that Mr. Trump wants to work on the relationship. But maintaining a tense stability is about all he can hope for. When he lands in Beijing, it should be with the full recognition of the new dynamic that he, more than any previous president, has helped bring about: a China that is now just as likely to set the agenda, to show the way forward, as America once did.
