Minxin Pei, Columnist

What Trump and Vance Get Wrong About China

Beijing sees itself fighting an insurgency against a stronger foe, hoping to win simply by not losing.

July 24, 2024 at 7:00 PM UTC

Minxin Pei is professor of government at Claremont McKenna College. His latest book is "The Broken China Dream: How Reform Revived Totalitarianism."

No fans of the CCP.
Photographer: Emily Elconin/Bloomberg

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Donald Trump’s new running mate minces few words when it comes to the People’s Republic: “I don’t like China,” Senator JD Vance has said, arguing for the US military to shed other commitments to focus on Asia.

Trump himself has threatened to impose 60% tariffs on Chinese goods, which could shave as much as 2.5 percentage points off China’s GDP, according to an estimate by UBS. Hawks are guaranteed to populate a second Trump administration.