The changing Trump line

America’s liberal opinion leaders may be springing to the conclusion that their new President Donald Trump may after all be just a paper tiger, or zhilaohu, the Chinese term Mao used for “ineffectual” opponents. His reiteration of the “One China” policy marks a U-turn from campaign remarks on China and Taiwan. China, today’s other major world power, may have also used its diplomatic clout and reached out to Trump family members to bring about this change of stance after Mr Trump first took the Taiwanese President’s call. A phone call to President Xi Jinping last week, plus a personal letter Mr Trump sent two days earlier, removed many doubts raised by the harsh campaign rhetoric.

Mr Trump seems to have softened considerably on many other crucial issues. He told Israel its West Bank expansionism may not be good for peace, retracting from an earlier vow to back shifting of the US embassy to Jerusalem, Israel’s capital. He played golf with Japan’s PM last week, easing concerns over sensitive policies on long-term allies. And he appears to have gone back on his threat to let Nato float free of US aid. India, whose concerns with the US are more to do with immigration policy changes, may have to fear Mr Trump over the threatened action on trade deficit, but there’s hope he’ll change tack on this too. The more his policies align with those of his predecessors, the less panic there might be in a world that moved its “Doomsday Clock” closer to midnight just weeks ago over concerns about Mr Trump’s agenda.