Three days before U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January 2017, Chinese President Xi Jinping portrayed Beijing as the champion and defender of globalization at the Davos World Economic Forum amid rising fears of trade protectionism.
A few months later, as Xi launched a forum on China's vast "Belt and Road" effort, promising to spread Chinese investment and soft power through the world, it appeared his country's global stature was rising.
But now the luster on Beijing's trade and investment story has dulled amid rising U.S. tariffs, higher interest rates and capital flight from emerging markets, all of which threaten to erode global growth.
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