We sometimes hear that Chinese government officials must be doing triple somersaults and high-fiving each other because Trump is being so enabling of the Chinese Communist Party this Trump term. For example, NBC says that “ ‘China is the real winner’: Trump’s reversal in Ukraine aids Beijing, Western officials say.” CNN says that “China sees opportunity in a world turned upside down by Trump.”
Meanwhile, Fox News says that “Trump’s latest moves signal most hawkish approach on China yet.” The New York Times says that “Trump’s New Crackdown on China Is Just Beginning.” Bloomberg says that “Trump Targets China With Biggest Salvo of Moves of Second Term.”
Some say this, some say that. Of course, both this and that may be happening at the same time. But I haven’t seen the list of administrative actions that smooth the path for the CCP with respect to its goals of despoiling and weakening the United States.
The story so far
The new Trump administration has imposed ten-percent tariffs on Chinese imports, plans to increase them, and is pressing Mexico to impose tariffs on Chinese imports.
The Trump administration has demanded that the government of Panama decouple from China, with some initial success.
Top members of Trump administration’s foreign policy and national security team—including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick—are longtime critics of the Chinese Communist Party.
Trump has nominated China critic David Perdue to be U.S. ambassador to China. He has nominated Landon Heid, “a China hawk who helped set technology policy” for the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, to be Commerce’s assistant secretary for export administration.
The Trump administration is acting to block companies governed by the Chinese Communist Party from investing in and burrowing into “strategic U.S. sectors like technology, critical infrastructure, healthcare, agriculture, energy, raw materials, and others.”
The month-old administration has proposed million-dollar port fees for Chinese cargo ships.
Alternatively…
But let’s ask the CCP guys, Xi Jinping et al. Knowing what you know about Trump 2.0 as of late February 2025, would you rather be dealing with Donald Trump right now or with Kamala Harris (the vacuous woman with the egalitarian and socialist agenda who was Trump’s Democratic opponent in the recent U.S. presidential election)? Be honest.
