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Hello and welcome back to the Americana Show. My name is Freddie Gray. I am the deputy editor of the

spectator and the US editor. And I'm pleased to tell you that this is the 10th year of the

Americano podcast. And I think it's fair to say it's been a fairly fascinating time in American politics, life and culture.

And that's what we talk about every episode on this podcast. So please keep listening and provide

as much feedback as you like. Today we are again going to be talking about great power politics

because even though this

is called The Americano Show, there's a lot going on in the world and a lot of it relates to

the presidency of Donald Trump. And today, or this evening, Vladimir Putin is going to arrive

in Beijing for the 25th anniversary of what is called the Treaty of Good

Neighbourliness and Friendly Cooperation. But it's interesting timing because of course Donald

Trump has just been in China as we discussed on the last Americano. And to talk about it,

I'm delighted to be joined by Francis Pike, who is a historian and journalist.

Francis, it sounds to me from the kind of readouts we've had of both the Trump visit

and recent statements about China and Russia and China and the rest of the world,

that China is trying to position itself in the Trump era as the superpower that manages things

while Trump wrecks things. Am I right in my analysis? Well, that was the strategy that Xi Jinping set

...