While on the US side, the timing of the trip suggests an attempt to distract voters from troubles at home, for China it comes as a provocation amid already-high tensions. The temptation for Beijing will be to speed up cross-strait unification, but the world needs at least one global power to show restraint.
The chaos created by Russia stands in sharp contrast to China’s nuanced, considered approach and puts Beijing’s goals at risk. Fifty years after Nixon’s visit to China reshaped the global order, the world again waits for Beijing to decide where its geopolitical interests lie.