When Donald Trump visited China and met Xi Jinping in Beijing in mid-May 2026, the summit became more than an important test of a global order already strained by tariff disputes and increasingly confrontational geopolitical rhetoric.
It also symbolized China’s growing global significance.
The immaculate reception accorded to the US president, complete with carefully choreographed ceremonies and dancing children, showcased Chinese civility, hospitality, and statecraft at their finest.
Yet concerns over economic negotiations, a widening trade gap, and technological rivalry persisted, casting further uncertainty over the global economy.
China confirmed that it would purchase 200 Boeing aircraft following the meeting between Trump and Xi. In addition, Chinese airlines are expected to order 400 GE aircraft engines. Under the agreement, the United States will provide China with supply guarantees for aircraft engine parts and components, according to China’s Ministry of Commerce.
Trump expressed satisfaction not only with the warm welcome he received but also with the agreements reached during the visit. “We made a lot of great trade deals, including over 200 planes for Boeing, with a promise of 750 planes, which would be by far the largest order ever,” a visibly pleased Trump told journalists aboard Air Force One after departing China.
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg was included in the presidential delegation, alongside Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
Beyond the business agreements, speculation emerged that President Trump might seek China’s assistance in mediating conflicts in the Middle East, although he firmly denied such intentions. Nevertheless, such speculation itself reflected an implicit recognition of China’s expanding international influence beyond its immediate neighborhood.
In the aftermath of the summit, one conclusion appeared increasingly evident: Was this a moment signaling the gradual transfer of global leadership from the United States to China?
In April 2026, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited China for the fourth time in three years and publicly called on Beijing to assume a greater role in global affairs. Sánchez argued that China should help fill the vacuum left by the United States in multilateral governance and the defense of international law.
Speaking at Tsinghua University, Sánchez stated that China should play a substantial role in addressing global challenges such as climate change, security, artificial intelligence, and inequality, as Europe increases its own efforts in response to a changing international order.
During talks with President Xi Jinping, he also urged China to use its diplomatic influence to uphold international law and contribute to ending ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.
Why, then, is China not stepping forward to assume a greater leadership role in global affairs -- if not as the sole leader, then at least as a co-leader alongside the United States?
Why does China remain reluctant to embrace global leadership even when other world leaders appear eager to confer such a role upon it?
Part of the answer may be cultural. Modesty has long been regarded as a virtue in Chinese ethical traditions and has deeply influenced the country’s political culture.
China’s foreign policy was for decades associated with the principle often summarized as “hide your strength, bide your time.” This approach guided Chinese diplomacy from the 1980s onward, emphasizing a low international profile, avoidance of unnecessary confrontation, and a focus on sustained domestic development.
The phrase is often attributed directly to Deng Xiaoping. However, Deng never used the exact formulation. During his 1992 Southern Tour, he stated: “If we work hard without drawing attention for a few years, we will be able to have more influence in the international community. Only then can we become a great power in the global arena.” The phrase “hide your strength, bide your time” in its popular form was later articulated by Deng’s successor, Jiang Zemin.
Following the reform and opening-up policies initiated by Deng Xiaoping, China prioritized economic development and moved away from an earlier foreign policy centered on promoting international communist movements and class struggle.
Deng emphasized peaceful international relations as a fundamental principle of China’s foreign policy, believing that a stable international environment was essential for national development.
President Xi Jinping’s address to the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2021 offered a clearer articulation of China’s evolving role in the world. Defending economic globalization, Xi argued:
“It is true that economic globalization has created new problems. But this is no justification to write off economic globalization altogether. Rather, we should adapt to and guide globalization, cushion its negative impact, and deliver its benefits to all countries and all nations.”
At a time when protectionist and nationalist forces were gaining momentum in many Western countries, Xi warned against turning globalization into a scapegoat for broader economic and social challenges.
According to Xi, many of the world’s pressing problems could not simply be attributed to globalization. Referring to issues ranging from the refugee crisis to financial instability, he argued that these challenges had more complex causes.
“The international financial crisis is another example,” Xi stated. “It is not an inevitable outcome of economic globalization; rather, it is the consequence of the excessive pursuit of profit by financial capital and a major failure of financial regulation.”
Xi famously compared the global economy to a vast ocean from which no country could isolate itself and declared that China had “learned how to swim.”
Decades of reform and opening up lead China to become the world’s second-largest economy. Xi presented China’s development as an opportunity rather than a threat, emphasizing that “China has not only benefited from economic globalization but also contributed to it.”
Looking ahead, Xi warned against protectionism and advocated what he described as “universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization.” He argued that countries were navigating turbulent global waters together aboard a “giant ship on which their shared destiny hinges.”
China’s posture as a reluctant superpower is deeply rooted in its traditional culture and self-perception as a civilizational state rather than merely a nation-state. Political scientist Lucian Pye famously observed that China is “a civilization pretending to be a nation-state.”
Such a self-image tends to temper overt ambitions for global dominance and helps explain China’s continuing hesitation to embrace the mantle of world leadership, despite its growing economic and geopolitical influence.
Habibul Haque Khondker is a sociologist and columnist.