These Are The Winners In The Game Of Foreign Policy For 2017

The 2017 news roller-coaster did not just hit the United States. From North Korea’s missiles to Russia’s maneuvers to the fall of one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, major events have come to a head this year, each posing challenges to the world order and the new U.S. administration.

Here, NPR international correspondents take a look at some of the global figures who finished a tumultuous year on top.

Xi Jinping

The presidency of Donald Trump — marked by a systematic retreat of US leadership from the global stage — has been the gift that keeps on giving to Xi Jinping, a leader bent on exporting the products, policies and political ideology of China’s Communist Party. On his first day in office, President Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, ceding a region that makes up two-thirds of global economic growth — and its regulatory framework — to the world’s second-largest economy. Trump’s vow in June to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Accord similarly handed the reins of global climate policy to a government that has allowed rapid economic growth to turn its environment into an unmitigated disaster. Xi recently enshrined himself and his guiding principles into China’s constitution, solidifying his stature as one of China’s most powerful leaders in modern history. Little did Xi know that the end of 2017 would also see him as one of the world’s strongest leaders.