Most of it is unintentional. Yet the west could not be helping China more if it tried. First we bet that China would consciously remake itself in our image. All we needed to do was nudge it along. That obviously failed. Then we reverted to the belief that history would steer the country to its liberal democratic endpoint — whether China knew of its destiny or not. Ditto.

Finally, we threw up our hands. China is plotting its own non-western course. All we can do is — what? Readers should fill in the blanks.

It is facile to lay all the blame on Donald Trump. To be sure, the US president’s proposed steel and aluminium tariffs are a case study in collateral damage. America’s allies will be hit far harder by Mr Trump’s friendly fire than Beijing. His blanket actions will make it easier for Xi Jinping, China’s “emperor-for-life” president, to divide what we still call the west.