In the search for stability, some western nations are turning to a country that many in Washington see as an existential threat If geopolitics relies at least in part on bonhomie between global leaders, China made an unexpected play for Ireland’s good graces when the taoiseach visited Beijing this month. Meeting Ireland’s leader, Micheál Martin, in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China’s president, Xi Jinping , said a favourite book of his as a teenager was The Gadfly, by the Irish