“The attempt to block economic cooperation under all sorts of pretexts and break up the interdependence of the world is nothing but backpedaling,” declared China’s President Xi Jinping at the just concluded APEC summit in Peru.

“[S]tand up to protectionism and unilateralism,” said Ren Hongbin, a former Commerce Ministry official and now chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, also at APEC. “There is the rhetoric of the decoupling and derisking,” he warned. “The artificial severance of the global supply chain is detrimental for everyone”

Beijing’s campaign against the next president of the United States has just begun. China is trying to position itself as the defender of free trade and tar President-elect Donald Trump as the global disruptor.

The Chinese Communist Party narrative is far from the truth, however. China is both a predatory trader and becoming even more so in recent months.

How do we know this? The regime, among other things, is stepping up attacks on foreign businesses. AstraZeneca confirmed this month that Chinese investigators had detained Leon Wang, president of the company’s China business.

Several factors are at play at the moment. First, Xi Jinping is absolutely determined to reserve the Chinese market for China’s state enterprises. He hits foreign companies whenever he can.

Second,........

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