"Xi Jinping has more clout than Donald Trump," The Economist writes in its cover editorial. "The world should be wary Do not expect Mr Xi to change China, or the world, for the better."
- "China's economy is still second in size to America's and its army, though rapidly gaining muscle, pales in comparison. But economic heft and military hardware are not everything."
- "The leader of the free world has a narrow, transactional approach to foreigners and seems unable to enact his agenda at home."
- "The United States is still the world's most powerful country, but its leader is weaker at home and less effective abroad than any of his recent predecessors, not least because he scorns the values and alliances that underpin American influence."
- "The president of the world's largest authoritarian state, by contrast, walks with swagger abroad. His grip on China is tighter than any leader's since Mao. And whereas Mao's China was chaotic and miserably poor, Mr Xi's is a dominant engine of global growth."
- "The world does not want an isolationist United States or a dictatorship in China. Alas, it may get both."