LONDON: Xi Jinping had a good year in 2017.

It began on the international stage at Davos, when the Chinese leader, in sober suit and tie, assured his nervous audience that China was a steady ally that stood by its treaty commitments, including the Paris Agreement, and was firm in its commitment to globalisation.

The contrast with the US president was too obvious to need stating.

As the year draws to a close, Xi, in his domestic capacity as chairman of everything, appears to have consolidated his leadership of party, army and state into an unassailable, long-term dominance.

It is worth asking then what Xi Jinping means by his commitment to globalisation and to tackling climate change, and, in what way China, the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, might fill the leadership vacuum created by the absence of the United States. Tiếp tục đọc “Commentary: China’s impressive record in climate change fuels questions of global leadership” →