Sino-American relations were in trouble long before Donald Trump

As Communist Party leaders tell it, China’s relations with the West resemble a brawl between heavyweight champions, made vicious by American cheating. This narrative of grievance has been building for years and starts at the top. In July 2018, as China reeled under the first blows of Donald Trump’s trade war, President Xi Jinping hosted European Union leaders in Beijing. In closed-door discussions with his guests, Mr Xi accused America of behaving like a fighter in a “no-rules boxing match”. Since then, Chinese complaints have not been muted by Mr Trump’s defeat and replacement by President Joe Biden. That is odd, because Mr Biden is a politician of the old school, whose diplomatic style—truth be told—involves more back-slapping than eye-gouging.