Beijing in President Trump's policy shop

Reports suggest that there could be surprises hidden in President Trump's China policy.

- Manoj Joshi

Add up the following developments: The invite to President Xi Jinping to attend the inaugural, the phone call on the eve of beginning his second term, and the Wall Street Journal report citing officials to say that Trump is keen to travel to China within the first 100 days of his second presidency.

Contrast these with earlier reports of Trump criticizing China. In 2012, he accused Beijing of inventing the concept of global warming to make United States (US) manufacturing non-competitive. In 2020, he put tariffs on Chinese imports saying that for decades they have ripped off the US "like no one has ever done before". When Covid struck, he called it the "China virus" and blamed the country for unleashing "this plague onto the world".

However, in recent years, there has been a change of tone. In 2023, he told a Fox News town hall that President Xi was "a brilliant guy" who runs 1.4 billion people "with an iron fist. Smart, brilliant, everything perfect". In October 2024, the Wall Street Journal cited him as saying, "I had a very strong relationship with him (Xi)", adding, "he was actually a really good, I don't want to say friend—I don't want to act foolish, [and say] 'he was my friend'—but I got along with him great."

Note that in the first 200 or so orders he issued on Day One of his presidency, Trump went light on China except on that false claim relating to Panama. But the next day, on Tuesday, he announced a 10 per cent tariff on Chinese imports because of China's role in sending fentanyl to Canada and Mexico from where it entered the US.