from
Christoph Giesen, Beijing, and Claus Hulverscheidt
The first week of November 2020 was a week of relief for millions of people around the world – including Chinese citizen Xi Jinping. The Americans voted out Donald Trump as president, and the four-year-old haunt of chaos, boor and trade wars finally seemed to be over. 45 weeks later, some hopes in Trump’s successor Joe Biden have been fulfilled, other things are at least partially recognizable. However, Xi Jinping, Biden’s Beijing counterpart, almost has to feel as if this week of November never happened: The US punitive tariffs on imports from China are all still in force, Washington’s distrust of Beijing remains high and the thread of conversation between the two governments so thin that it can tear off at any time.