Opinion Today: Trump’s tricky relationship with China
Here’s what we’re focusing on.
Opinion Today
May 13, 2026
An illustration depicts Chinese President Xi Jinping’s face inside a silhouette of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Illustration by The New York Times

Notable

Xi has Trump right where he wants him. “Mr. Xi will provide a lavish welcome for Mr. Trump in Beijing on Thursday, but the Chinese leader almost certainly views the visit — and the broader current state of the relationship — not as a time for accommodation and lasting reconciliation, but as a temporary lull in a longer test of wills.”

— Julian Gewirtz, who served in senior China policy roles in the Biden administration

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Purdue Pharma may be gone … “But the story of opioids’ grip on American medicine did not begin with Purdue. Nor will the dismantling of the company bring order to the global supply chain that American power built.”

— Benjamin Siegel, a professor of history at Boston University

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Dear NATO leaders, it’s time to get involved in keeping the Strait of Hormuz open. “I understand why our NATO allies want to watch Trump and Netanyahu reap what they sowed. But these two awful leaders have sowed the wind — and we will all reap the whirlwind if Iran comes out of this stronger.”

— Thomas L. Friedman, Opinion columnist

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Spotlight

Damon Winter/The New York Times

The Autocracy Index: Trump’s Disregard for Congress Has Reached a New Level

The editorial board, which has been tracking 12 markers of democratic erosion, notes a rising danger in the lack of congressional authorization for the Iran war.

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ICYMI

Here’s the real problem with governance in the West. “What we should be talking about when we talk about post-liberalism isn’t the resilience of a specific ideology but rather the persistence of a general political situation — a set of conditions that obtains regardless of whether Orban or Trump or Farage holds power, a crisis of Western governance that exists independently of populist think-tankery or reactionary blueprints.”

— Ross Douthat, Opinion columnist

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More in Opinion

An illustration of army green piggy banks rolling along on tank treads.

Guest Essay

Would You Trust Pete Hegseth With $1.5 Trillion of Your Money?

“You name it, we’re investing in it” does not inspire confidence.

By Noah Shachtman

A diverse group of voters waits in line in a parking lot.

Jamelle Bouie

This Is Getting Dangerous

The ruling in Louisiana v. Callais might drive America’s politics to an even more precarious place of partisan tension and ideological Balkanization.

By Jamelle Bouie

In Your Words

Re: “The Shared Feeling of Being Harvested by the Future

When I was younger, “Star Trek” symbolized a future many were hoping to embrace. Now, looking at A.I., it more often seems the future is something many are hoping to escape. — A comment by George from Frederick, Md.

Read more comments on the story here and check out our Letters to the Editor.

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