Trump’s problems with China started with his reflexive rejection of the TPP. IMO, the TPP was a geopolitical rather than an economic pact. If it had come to fruition, it would have brought Asian and Pacific countries into the US sphere and stymied China’s attempts to expand its influence. The hope had been that China would then negotiate to gain access to that market.
China has expanded its Belt and Road program into the pacific and has managed to persuade Solomon Islands and Kiribati to cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan. This was a diplomatic black eye for Taiwan even if those islands were hardly big trading partners.
Trump has never cared for multilateral partnerships, so he was reduced to starting a trade war whose costs dwarfed any supposed losses that the US would have experienced under the TPP. He found that telling other countries to keep away from China without offering them incentives didn’t achieve much.
Trump was lucky, though, that President Xi showed he’s as belligerent as Trump which has limited the benefit China has accrued. Traditionally, China has preferred to use soft power but Xi has preferred to throw his weight around. His attempts at dominating the South China Sea have alarmed countries with competing claims such as Vietnam and the Phillipines, the border skirmishes with India have forced the Indians closer to the US, the trade bans against Australia haven’t done it any favours, and the crackdown in Hong Kong has limited the political inroads it could make in Asia and the Pacific.
China has expanded its Belt and Road program into the pacific and has managed to persuade Solomon Islands and Kiribati to cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan. This was a diplomatic black eye for Taiwan even if those islands were hardly big trading partners.
Trump has never cared for multilateral partnerships, so he was reduced to starting a trade war whose costs dwarfed any supposed losses that the US would have experienced under the TPP. He found that telling other countries to keep away from China without offering them incentives didn’t achieve much.
Trump was lucky, though, that President Xi showed he’s as belligerent as Trump which has limited the benefit China has accrued. Traditionally, China has preferred to use soft power but Xi has preferred to throw his weight around. His attempts at dominating the South China Sea have alarmed countries with competing claims such as Vietnam and the Phillipines, the border skirmishes with India have forced the Indians closer to the US, the trade bans against Australia haven’t done it any favours, and the crackdown in Hong Kong has limited the political inroads it could make in Asia and the Pacific.