Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Jake Werner
“Trump is more open to genuine dealmaking with China than Biden and has shown himself willing to back down when necessary. The Chinese behavior that Trump is denouncing seems to be a response to discrete U.S. actions that could be reversed. The rapid accumulation of aggressive anti-China measures in recent weeks might be driven more by Trump’s search for leverage in negotiations than an unalterable commitment to confrontation. Yet the world’s two most powerful countries are playing with fire. Almost a decade of intense mutual antagonism has significantly exacerbated the zero-sum global pressures that fractured the relationship in the first place. Both sides have assiduously built the institutional and ideological infrastructure to sustain great power violence.” (06/09/25)