Wendy Liu

A prominent sponsoring group was named the Shared Journey of Friendship US Youth Exchange Delegation. It consisted of around 190 teachers and students from 14 schools of seven U.S. states, and Tacoma's Lincoln High School was among them.

The Times stories were a bonanza for the Chinese government, which long considered Falun Gong an anti-state and anti-humanity cult.

The horseshoe theory was considered simplistic by serious political scientists, some of whom even called it nonsense, but it can be illustrative and fun.

What rubs salt in the wound of American pride in its democratic system is the mockery from China: the fact that netizens of the one-party authoritarian state are laughing over the debacle.

One writes: "When your advantage is thin or at a disadvantage, you practice protectionism in a big way. This is the so-called 'beacon of nations.' Such actions are bringing U.S. credibility to the bottom of a valley. What a mess!"

“If the U.S. constantly regards China as its main rival,” Foreign Minister Wang Yi emphasized, “China-U.S. relations are bound to remain fraught with troubles and problems.”

This American movie has been adapted into a Chinese play shown on Chinese stages, all under an ever-censoring government and an often anti-American state media.

One hundred students plus their teachers from Lincoln High School of Tacoma did it in 2016 after Xi had visited the school during his Washington state tour in 2015. Ten Lincoln High students will go to China this month.

Not just his dark windbreaker for cool weather outdoors, Chinese officials also copy Xi’s indoor or summer look, usually a white shirt tucked in black pants.

One Chinese news outlet traced the beginning of the thinking that Trump might be secretly on China’s side to an interview then-President Trump gave in early 2017 to the Wall Street Journal, in which he repeated what President Xi Jinping had told him that “Korea really used to be part of China.” His words brought cheers among the Chinese.