Hi, there. Welcome back to RuiThinking. I am Yang Rui. These days people like to talk about weather, ecological and political alike.

With the APEC conference around the corner in Vietnam, US President Trump has decided to pull out of the Paris Climate Change Pact. But China says we shall honor our commitment. World leaders and elites are alerted by media fanfare on world leadership China might assume when Trump puts America first.

A latest cover story of the Time magazine by Ian Bremar says China Won, and has for the first time used Chinese characters 中国赢了 to generate sensation. 

Did the journal copy Le Mond, a French newspaper in using the mandarin for the front page headline ahead of the 19th National Congress of the CPC? Something is quite in vogue for the press. Whatever the overseas speculations, Chinese and China do make a difference. 

Unlike endless policy hearings and brutal media attacks in the West, the political will of President Xi Jinping is starting to bring the choppy waters at home and in the South China Sea to normal.

This year, the APEC conference in Vietnam fails to list South China Sea as a major topic for deliberations. This is good news since ASEAN would not have to take side between the US and China. 

Former state councilor Dai Bingguo dismissed the ruling of The Hague as a piece of waste paper in Carnegie last year while President Duterte of the Philippines has given up a confrontational approach and decided to engage China in a practical business partnership. 

In sharp contrast, President Trump's recent rhetoric has angered DPRK leader Kim Jong Un calling him a "Rocket Man," fueling escalation of tensions. (Trump: The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defense itself and its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea (the DPRK). Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime.) Trump says strategic patience is over. War clouds are gathering on our doorsteps in northeast Asia while Trump may use tweets to divert public attention from domestic woes to the alleged external threats. Is it also the market demand of a huge military industrial complex? Climate in the region has been poisoned.

So much for this RuiThinking. I am Yang Rui, see you next time. 

(Yang Rui is the anchor of CGTN’s Dialogue.)