Trump softens his stance on China

Security strategy and chip sales recast U.S. global interests in business terms.

- BY MICHAEL WILNER

THE U.S. document fails to mention the AI race with China. Above, robots at a museum in Shenzhen.

(QILAI SHEN Bloomberg)

President Trump last week released a national security strategy laying out his vision for America's role in the world, tempering U.S. support for longstanding allies and recasting U.S. global interests in business terms.

China took note.

The paper's section on Asia, almost entirely devoted to China and the threat of war over Taiwan, concludes with an imperative to win "economic and technological competition" in the Indo-Pacific.

But the document offers no strategic plan on how to bolster U.S. alliances and an infrastructural base unprepared for a war this decade. And it never once mentions the race against China for superiority in artificial intelligence.

Three days after releasing the document, Trump announced that Nvidia, the world's most valuable company and leading chipmaker, could begin selling powerful chips to China — the kind of chips key to powering AI. Trump's move broke with decades of U.S. export control policy he once supported.

It was a welcome series of events in Beijing, where Chinese-state media interpreted Trump's actions as an "inward retrenchment" - pragmatic steps from a shrinking superpower, focused on U.S. trade in the region above all else. The president's moves come as the White House has tried to lower tensions with Beijing triggered by Trump's tariff hikes.

Trump alluded to economic concerns when he explained the decision on chips with a social media post: "We will protect National Security, create American Jobs, and keep America's lead in AI."

Trump's new strategy "differs from the style of the first term, which emphasized 'great power competition,'" one Chinese analysis read, "and shifts toward an inward and domestic focus, emphasizing 'America First.'