GENEVA (AP) — Chinese leaders have long been sensitive about their communist country's international image. Now, they are battling back — investing in diplomacy and a courtship of hearts and minds, just as the United States digs in on the Trump administration's "America First" mindset.

A trade war and other frictions between the world's top economic power and the fast-growing No. 2 have exposed Washington's fears about technology, security and influence. U.S. political leaders have derided China's government over policies in protest-riddled Hong Kong, at detention centers in the majority Musli...