Up until recently, Trump has had a bit of a following in China, for two reasons. First, the Chinese, who pride themselves on their pragmatism, have traditionally found it easier to make deals with businessmen than liberal intellectuals spouting cant about human rights. Second, some Chinese, like some Americans, actually appreciate Trump’s swaggering nationalism. And, as far as they’re concerned, his corruption isn’t really a problem; after all, the use of connections for profit is a big part of Chinese culture.
All of that is starting to change. The Chinese are slowly finding out that Trump is a very different kind of barbarian; for one thing, he actually believes all of that rubbish about trade deficits, and he is willing to inflict pain on his own followers to get what he wants. The government hasn’t figured out how to deal with him yet. In the long run, however, they probably will, because they have been buying off dangerous barbarians for centuries; there has to be a Mongolian somewhere back in time who behaved a lot like Trump.