US president Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing today will highlight the role of an elite group of think-tank analysts, diplomats and scholars struggling to help Beijing’s leadership make sense of Washington.
The reign of an erratic US president who threatens nuclear war and thumbs his nose at diplomatic politesse has made the jobs of such experts both harder and more important. Above all, Beijing craves stability, a commodity in short supply in its most important foreign relationship.
“When they are making decisions about policy they are always very interested in how the US will respond,” said Andrew Scobell, an expert on China at the Rand Corporation. “They want a predictable response, whether it is good or bad, they just want predictable.
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