Karishma Vaswani, Columnist

Why Talking Tough on China Means a More Dangerous World

Republicans have made anti-China rhetoric a key focus in foreign policy. The consequences are ominous.

August 24, 2023 at 8:00 PM UTC

Karishma Vaswani is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asia politics with a special focus on China. Previously, she was the BBC's lead Asia presenter and worked for the BBC across Asia and South Asia for two decades.

Tough talk.
Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg

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To understand why talking tough on China is so popular with Republican presidential candidates, look no further than this recent study from the Pew Research Centre, which shows that around four in 10 Americans describe Beijing as an enemy of the US, rather than a competitor or partner. That’s a jump of 13 points from last year.

Among Americans, it is Republicans and Republican-leaning independents rather than Democrats who tend to see China’s global role in more negative terms. That was evident in their primary debate Thursday, where there was one united theme among the candidates: China is a threat, and it’s not going away.