What We Still Get Wrong About Trump’s Approach to China
The US president’s “tough on China” reputation belies his interest in striking a deal with the nation, not decoupling from it.
Illustration: Sebastian König for Bloomberg
List all the ways Donald Trump has changed the world, and a more confrontational US approach to China ranks high. Whether you’re a mere mortal confronting the cost of tariffs on your new Chinese-made microwave or a billionaire chief executive officer leaning on a freshly hired “geoeconomics” consultant and pondering the return — or decline — of American power, the US’s Trump-induced China turn has impacted your life.
In the decade since he launched his run for the presidency with a populist attack on trade with China, Trump has brought the world not just tweetable trade wars but an entire industry of analysts and books determined to help you make sense of an unfurling geopolitical order in which he’s the one leading the unwinding. Whether you are rereading Samuel Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations or confronting the Chip War and Chokepoints and pondering the best analog for our times — the 1920s? the Cold War? — you have the president to thank, or blame.