China's Xi visits Europe, seeking strategic opportunities
During his first visit to Europe in five years, Chinese President Xi Jinping appears intent on seizing opportunities to loosen the continent's ties with the United States and forge a world free from American rule.The Chinese leader has chosen three countries to visit – France, Serbia and Hungary – which each, to a greater or lesser extent, view the post-war American order of the world with suspicion, see China as a necessary counterweight and are eager to strengthen economic ties.At a time of tensions with much of Europe – over China's "unrestrained" embrace of Russia despite the war in Ukraine, its surveillance state and its apparent espionage activities that led to the recent arrest in Germany of four people – Xi, who will arrive in France on Sunday, wants to demonstrate China...