Widespread unease over Trump’s China policy
Politics & Current Affairs
Top politics and current affairs news for January 27, 2017. Part of the daily The China Project news roundup "The chairman of everything."
-
Trump’s China policy: ‘This is how you stumble into a crisis’ / Foreign Policy (paywall)
A detailed piece in Foreign Policy describes widespread unease among experts about Trump’s China policy, particularly his administration’s apparent suggestion of a naval blockade in the South China Sea, which Dan de Luce writes would be “tantamount to an act of war.” The Obama administration’s top Asia adviser, Evan Medeiros, is quoted as saying that the messaging from the Trump White House is “somewhere between confrontational and disoriented,” and he warns that we could easily “stumble into a crisis.” The new administration’s bellicose rhetoric has also reportedly “rattled” some senior Pentagon officials, who despite years of requesting more resources for South China Sea patrols are “not keen on provoking tensions with China or threatening a naval blockade that Washington won’t be ready to enforce.” For more background on these issues, see the The China Project roundups here and here.
- From Jack Ma to Kim Jong Un, five areas where Trump needs China / Bloomberg
- How Trump can press China without resorting to a trade war / The Economist (paywall)
- What are China’s stakes in Syria? / The Diplomat
- Chinese scientist blasts Trump’s climate change talk / WSJ (paywall)
- India to overtake China as the largest growth market for energy by 2030 / International Business Times
