The Trump administration mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic and the death of George Floyd has raised the stature of China, which is now perceived as the more competent country in the world.

Strange as it may sound,China will miss the Trump administration, if, and when, it goes.

Undoubtedly, the Trump administration has been the most aggravating administration that China has had to deal with since the normalization process that Henry Kissinger began in 1971. It has launched a trade war that has damaged the Chinese economy a little. Restrictions have been placed on technology exports to China. A massive effort has been undertaken to cripple Huawei. Yet, the most galling move has been the effort to extradite Meng Wanzhou. Applying Western laws to Chinese citizens reminds the Chinese people vividly of the Century of Humiliation when Western laws were applied on Chinese soil.

Yet, if the Chinese leaders think long-term and strategically, as they are wont to do, they could also calculate that the Trump administration may have helpedChina. Clearly, the Trump administration has no thoughtful, comprehensive andlong-term strategyto manage an ever-rising China. Nor has it heeded the wise advice of key strategic thinkers, like Kissinger or George Kennan. Kennan, for example, advised that the long-term outcome of the contest with the then Soviet Union would depend on “the degree to which the United States can create among the peoples of the world” the impression of a country “which is coping with the problem of its internal life” and “which has a spiritual vitality.” No such impression has been created by the Trump administration.Post-coronavirusand post-George Floyd, America is delivering the opposite impression. In relative terms, the Trump administration has raised the stature of China, which is now perceived asthe more competent countryin the world.

To be fair, America’s internal problems have preceded President Donald Trump. It is the only major developed country where the income of the bottom fifty percent has gone down for a thirty-year period leading to the creation of a “sea of despair” among the white working classes. John Rawls would have been appalled to see this. Indeed, as Martin Wolf of theFinancial Times says, America has become a plutocracy. By contrast, China has created a meritocratic governing system. A meritocracy could well out-perform a plutocracy.

Equally importantly, Kennan emphasized that America had to assiduously cultivate friends and allies. The Trump administration has seriously damaged relationships with friends and allies. In private, the Europeans are appalled. Walking away from the World Health Organization (WHO) when the world never needed the WHO more, especially to help poor African countries, was massively irresponsible. Not one American ally the United States out of WHO. The Trump administration has also threatened tariffs on allies like Canada and Mexico, Germany and France. All this does not mean that the rest of the world will rush to embrace China. Indeed, the Europeans have developed new reservations about working closely with China. Yet, there is no doubt that diminishing global respect for the United States opens more geopolitical space for China. Madeleine Albright once said “We are the indispensable nation. We stand tall and we see further than other countries into the future.” The Trump administration may succeed in making America a dispensable nation, presenting another geopolitical gift to China.