Western leaders on their guard with China ahead of Trump return [Video]

Chinese President Xi Jinping pitched his country as a font of stability at the G20 summit this week as a second Trump term looms, but analysts say wary Western nations are likely to hold Beijing at bay.

Xi was front and centre at the meeting of the world’s 20 largest economies in Rio de Janeiro, holding bilateral talks to firm up ties with everyone from Britain to France, Germany and Australia.

Beijing has positioned itself as a reliable partner ahead of the return of mercurial US President Donald Trump, a longtime critic of Washington’s traditional alliances who has threatened to upend diplomatic norms once back in power.

But experts said Trump’s return was unlikely to push Western nations into China’s orbit, though many would balance a more pragmatic line towards Beijing against an increasingly capricious United States.

Pradeep Taneja, a senior lecturer in Asian Studies at Australia’s University of Melbourne, …