Why 2017 is the wrong year for Trump to mess with China

President-elect Donald Trump has recently recruited a couple of China hawks onto his trade team, potentially provoking the nation yet again at a less than ideal time.

That’s because China is on the cusp of a leadership change that may make it particularly sensitive to provocations, according to the latest report from the Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy headed by Ian Bremmer.  

New party leadership will be chosen at the Communist Party’s 19th National Congress this fall, a transition that Bremmer calls “one of the most complex events since the beginning of China’s reform era [which started in 1978].”

Chinese president Xi Jinping “will be extremely sensitive to external challenges to his country’s interests at a time when all eyes are on his leadership,” Bremmer writes. “The Chinese president will be more likely than ever to respond forcefully to foreign policy challenges.”