Foreign affairs expert Gordon Chang said the Trump administration is “heading for a fundamental break” with China.
Chang made his comments in a column posted by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday.
“The rupture, if it occurs, will upend almost a half-century of Washington’s ‘engagement’ policies,” he said. “Twin speeches last month by Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo contained confrontational language rarely heard from senior American officials in public.
“Some argue the vice president’s (Oct. 24th) talk didn’t differ substantively from his groundbreaking October 2018 speech, but these observers fail to see that in the face of Beijing’s refusal to respond to American initiatives, Mr. Pence was patiently building the case for stern U.S. actions.”
And Chang pointed to Pompeo’s recent speech, where the secretary of state said: “It is no longer realistic to ignore the fundamental differences between our two systems and the impact…those systems have on American national security.”
Still, Chang noted, China appears confident it can continue to “manage America.”
“Many say Beijing is stalling, waiting for President (Donald) Trump to be forced from office,” he said. “That would be a mistake.
“Hostility to China is now so widespread that whoever wins the White House next year will probably continue the Trump administration’s hard-line approach.”
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