HISTORY, SOLAR PHENOMENON SHAKING CULTURE BEHIND A SPECTACLE OLD AND KNOWN AS ‘STEVE’ SALON CULINARY Weekend PAGE 15 | SCIENCE LAB HABITS GEMS IN WITH OAXACA, GENDER- MEXICO NEUTRAL FORMULA ONE PRICING BACK PAGE | HASHTAG OPEN HOUSE: REVS UP FOR TRAVEL A NEW SEASON INFLUENCERS HELP PAGE 17 | STYLE SELL HOT PROPERTIES PAGE 12 | SPECIAL REPORT PAGE 7 | BUSINESS .. INTERNATIONAL EDITION | SATURDAY-SUNDAY, MARCH 24-25, 2018 A friendship Trump puts hanging in Beijing’s the balance ‘helmsman’ on the spot BEIJING Roger Cohen China’s reply to U.S. tariffs may strain power structure established by Xi Jinping OPINION BY STEVEN LEE MYERS For the better part of two decades, Chi- PARIS It is tempting to say that the na’s leaders have made the most of the relationship between French President global trade rules set by the United Emmanuel Macron and President States and others, seizing on opportuni- Trump is the unlikeliest of friendships, ties to bolster their nation’s economic but that would be to miss the point. rise while finessing American com- Sure, they agree on very little. Not plaints that they were not always play- on Iran. Not on trade. Not on the Euro- ing fair. pean Union. Not on climate. Not on the Now, for the first time, China faces an importance of multilateralism. Not on American president who is embracing whether to criticize Vladimir Putin. protectionist measures, and that has Not on the importance of dignity, or presented its leader, Xi Jinping, with an truth, or the Enlightenment. extraordinary challenge: Even as he Still, I hear they speak all the time. has elevated his status as the country’s Trump follows Macron’s labor-market “helmsman,” with a new mandate to reforms and calls to rule indefinitely, the United States is congratulate him. moving to treat China more seriously as As Trump The first state visit of a strategic rival and to recast an eco- surrounds his administration nomic relationship that has long bound himself will be Macron’s to the two countries. with hawks, Washington next The punitive actions unveiled by Macron may month, a special CHINATOPIX, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS President Trump on Thursday — tariffs honor for “a great A steel mill in China. Beijing has warned that it will retaliate against American tariffs. “China will absolutely not sit back and watch,” its Commerce Ministry said. on $60 billion worth of Chinese goods be a bulwark guy.” The French and new restrictions on Chinese invest- against president is Trump’s ment in the United States — put Mr. Xi disaster. best friend in Eu- on the spot, forcing him to consider re- rope, and possibly taliatory action. beyond. Things On Friday, China said it was propos- fizzled with Theresa May, the British ing additional tariffs on 128 American prime minister. They never went any- products valued at $3 billion, even as it where with Germany’s Angela Merkel. Living in Facebook’s world called on Washington to resolve the dis- Trump-Macron is the only trans-Atlan- pute through negotiations to “avoid tic hinge not creaking. MENLO PARK, CALIF. That round building in the corner? May- damage to the broader picture of Chi- This is not really surprising. Both be a cultural center.” nese-U.S. cooperation.” men came from nowhere, mavericks In just a few years, Facebook built a The trade tensions could send a shud- hoisted to the highest offices of their virtual community that linked more der through the global economy and lands by a wave of disgust at politics- New company town than two billion people, an achievement complicate Mr. Xi’s efforts to sustain as-usual. They are, in their way, acci- with few precedents. Now the social net- China’s rapid growth in the face of rising dents of history, thrust to power at the to offer employees shorter work is building a real community, the debt and an aging population. passing of an era. Longing for disrup- commute and some strings kind you can walk around in. It is a Financial markets in the United tion produced these twin disrupters. project with many precedents in Ameri- States plunged on fears of a potential Both laid waste to the political estab- BY DAVID STREITFELD can history, quite a few of them caution- trade war between the world’s two larg- lishment, either smashing or co-opting ary tales about what happens when a est economies, with the Standard & mainstream parties. Both understood John Tenanes, Facebook’s vice presi- powerful corporation takes control of Poor’s 500-stock index dropping 2.5 per- the fact that voters were bored as well dent for real estate, is showing off the civic life. cent on Thursday. Asian markets were as angry, mistrustful of the liberal company’s plans for expansion. It will Facebook, Mr. Tenanes says, has a sliding steeply in trading Friday and consensus, angry at globalization’s have offices for thousands of program- dual mission: “We want to balance our major European indexes opened predations, restive for grandeur, mers to extend Facebook’s reach. But growth with the community’s needs.” sharply lower. thirsty for the outspoken rather than that is not what Mr. Tenanes is excited Willow Village will be wedged be- CHINA, PAGE 6 COHEN, PAGE 11 about. tween the Menlo Park neighborhood of He leans over a scale model of the 59- Belle Haven and the city of East Palo The New York Times publishes opinion acre site, which is named Willow Village. Alto, Calif., both heavily Hispanic com- TRUMP’S TRADE GAMBIT from a wide range of perspectives in “There will be housing there,” he points. munities that are among Silicon Valley’s By alienating allies, America could hopes of promoting constructive debate “There will be a retail street along here, poorest. Facebook is planning 1,500 JASON HENRY FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES undermine the possibility of collective about consequential questions. with a grocery store and a drugstore. FACEBOOK, PAGE 8 Facebook’s Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters, where about 12,000 employees work. action against China. PAGE 6 A new Italy, as seen by artists and demagogues CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK and suddenly the tone turns more MILAN poetic. “Italy and its thousand cultures should be the Silicon Valley of cultural Two exhibitions examine heritage,” it sings, one of many flour- ishes among the party’s proposals for interplay of culture and art institutions, churches and heritage politics at turning points sites. Unlike the League’s American cousins — Mr. Salvini is an avowed fan BY JASON FARAGO of President Trump — these Italian populists like to present themselves as In the prelude to the Italian elections defenders of public cultural institu- this month, the far-right League party tions, and their “Make Italy Great did not distinguish itself for rhetorical Again” vision highlights museums as subtlety. Its leader, Matteo Salvini, much as migration policy. For Mr. called Islam “incompatible with our Salvini’s party, the nationalist project values, rights and freedoms.” He char- goes right through the history of art. acterized the euro as a “crime against They are not the first right-wingers humanity.” And the senior League to make promises about Italian high politician Attilio Fontana, after deplor- culture. A few days after the March 4 ing that the “white race” could be elections, as the papers here weighed “wiped out” in Italy, went on to win the the likelihood of a populist governing presidency of Lombardy, the wealthy coalition or a new election, I visited northern region that includes this two major exhibitions examining how fashionable city, in a landslide. art and politics had informed each FONDAZIONE PRADA But pull up the League’s campaign other at previous turning points in Umberto Boccioni’s “Dinamismo di un footballer” (1913) from the exhibition “Post manifesto, dig past the strident anti- Italy’s history: in the 1920s and ’30s, Zang Tumb Tuuum. Art Life Politics: Italia 1918-1943” at the Fondazione Prada in Milan. immigration and anti-Muslim rhetoric, ITALY, PAGE 19 NEWSSTAND PRICES Issue Number Great Britain £ 2.20 Kazakhstan US$ 3.50 Oman OMR 1.40 Serbia Din 280 Tunisia Din 5.200 No. 41,998 Greece € 2.80 Latvia € 3.90 Poland Zl 15 Slovakia € 3.50 Turkey TL 11 Andorra € 3.70 Cameroon CFA 2700 Egypt EGP 28.00 Hungary HUF 950 Lebanon LBP 5,000 Portugal € 3.50 Slovenia € 3.40 U.A.E. AED 14.00 Antilles € 4.00 Canada CAN$ 5.50 Estonia € 3.50 Israel NIS 13.50 Luxembourg € 3.50 Qatar QR 12.00 Spain € 3.50 United States $ 4.00 Austria € 3.50 Croatia KN 22.00 Finland € 3.50 Israel / Eilat NIS 11.50 Malta € 3.40 Republic of Ireland ¤ 3.40 Sweden Skr 35 United States Military Y(1J85IC*KKNPKP( +.!"!?!#!? 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