China's strongman leader can't seem to catch a break. From the trade war with the United States to the crisis in Hong Kong to international criticism of his human rights record, President Xi Jinping suffered major setbacks in 2019 and his prospects for 2020 appear even worse.
China could have ended the trade war with the U.S. last May, thereby giving its flagging economy a significant boost. Yet, at the last minute, Chinese leaders backtracked on a number of issues that American negotiators had considered settled. With the U.S. also incurring high costs from the trade war, U.S. President Donald Trump was furious and took his revenge.
Beyond imposing new tariffs, Trump escalated his efforts to limit China's access to vital technologies. Less than two weeks after the trade agreement collapsed, Trump signed an executive order barring U.S. companies from using telecoms equipment from manufacturers that his administration deemed a national security risk. The most prominent of these is the Chinese tech giant Huawei, which Trump had already been targeting for months.