Former senior colonel in China’s People’s Liberation Army Zhou Bo said the Trump-Xi summit proves the United States and China are equals [1].
The assessment suggests a shift in the global power balance, implying that U.S. influence is waning while China capitalizes on perceived domestic and political weaknesses in America [2].
Speaking in a Fox News "Special Report" interview, Zhou Bo said the summit was a "ridiculous situation" [1]. The meeting, which took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in November 2020, serves as the focal point for his argument regarding parity between the two nations [1, 3].
Zhou Bo said that U.S. policy under Donald Trump weakened the country, which in turn created strategic opportunities for China to expand its influence [2, 3]. He said that the dynamics of the summit highlighted this transition toward a world where the two powers stand on equal footing [2].
During his analysis, Zhou Bo offered a stark outlook on the current trajectory of the U.S. He said, "America is going down" [3].
This perspective reflects a broader narrative within Chinese military and political circles regarding the decline of Western hegemony. By framing the 2020 summit as a turning point, Zhou Bo suggests that the U.S. has lost its unilateral ability to dictate global terms, a shift that China is positioned to exploit [2, 3].
““The summit proves the United States and China are equals.””
The comments from a former high-ranking PLA officer signal how Beijing perceives the internal volatility of U.S. politics as a strategic asset. By framing the 2020 Riyadh summit as proof of parity, Zhou Bo is articulating a shift from a unipolar world led by the U.S. to a bipolar system where China views itself as an equal peer with the capacity to fill vacuums left by American decline.
