Trump and Xi Jinping’s deadly game of chess
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What are the contrasting foreign policy strategies of Trump and Xi Jinping?
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Hi, I'm Sam Hawley, host of ABC News Daily. It's a podcast explaining one big news story affecting your world in just 15 minutes. From ABC investigations to politics, the cost of living to major global events. Expert guests and journalists join me to explain why the world works the way it does. Follow the ABC News Daily podcast on ABC Listen. This podcast was produced on the lands of the Wabakal and Gadigal people. Geopolitics has been full of a lot of chess metaphors lately. is like a checkmate on the Supreme Leader. It was absolutely brilliant military strategy. President Trump is hoping that this latest chess move of his was enough. So at the moment, it's kind of like a big game of aerial chess.
So it's really checkmate on not only Iran, but China as well.
We lost. We lost. Checkmate, right? Now, I've played a fair bit of chess, and I've learned that people with different personalities play the game in different ways. I, for example, do not have the patience to learn how to play the game properly, so my go-to move is an opening known as the scholar's mate. It involves starting the game with an explosive attack using my queen and bishop. If it goes to plan and your opponent is caught off guard, you can win the game in four moves. If your opponent realises what you're doing, which, if they're any good at chess, they probably will, you can find yourself in quite a bit of trouble. The scholar's mate might look dangerous, but in reality, it's one of the worst choices your opponent can make against you.
If it doesn't work, your queen gets trapped right out in the open. When it comes to geopolitical chairs, I think the scholar's mate is pretty much how Donald Trump approaches foreign policy.
Covert units go after the main prize. Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Celia Flores, who are now in custody in New York.
Sometimes the move works and he's won the game almost before it starts.
President Trump made it clear who was now in charge. We're going to be running it with a group and we're going to make sure it's run properly.
But at other times, his opponent recognises his plan and it doesn't work at all. Case in point, Iran.
More than a week after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was assassinated, his son, Moshdaba Khamenei, has been chosen as his successor. The 56-year-old hardliner is expected to carry on his father's legacy.
Trump went all out and now his metaphorical queen is stranded and he's found himself in deep, deep trouble. Based on my experience of playing chess, grinding yourself to victory from this position is very difficult.
The new opinion poll shows that most Americans actually think this war is a mistake.
It's extremely unpopular, in fact, as unpopular as the Iraq conflict was.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is playing this game of chess too, but he's got a far more complex strategy than Donald Trump.
Xi Jinping's rise to unrivalled power in modern Chinese history has exceeded all expectations.
Xi is playing positional chess, spending literally years organising his pieces, getting ready to claim the ultimate prize.
A major speech by President Xi Jinping that once again threatens the use of force in Taiwan.
lot of hard-nosed geopolitical commentators. This is the sign of a man with a plan.
Looking at the pictures from Beijing and the political propaganda, it's very clear this one man's grip on the world's largest country appears to be stronger than ever.
Donald Trump and Xi Jinping's different gameplay styles came to a head last week when Trump visited Beijing. Much of the talk was about how much better prepared the Chinese seemed than the Americans. Donald Trump is certainly coming into this summit on the back foot, bogged down by the ongoing quagmire of the Iran war. The thing is though... Despite the contrast between the two players, one impulsive, one highly prepared, I think they're both making massive fundamental mistakes. We've spent a long time exploring the flaws in Donald Trump's gameplay strategy.
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