China has offered itself as the Pacific Rim’s lead advocate for free trade, as US President Barack Obama defended the remnants of what he had hoped would be one of his biggest policy legacies.
Mr Obama’s “pivot” to Asia, and the now-stalled Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that was supposed to be its economic backbone, have for years given the US a leadership role at the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. But the election of Donald Trump, who campaigned on a protectionist platform and against Mr Obama’s TPP, has rewritten that formula.
On Mr Obama’s last official trip overseas, the real star at this year’s Lima summit was Chinese president Xi Jinping, who courted other APEC members with a rival to the TPP. Mr Xi offered Beijing as an alternative to what many US allies fear will be a more bellicose America under Mr Trump.