The Trouble with Trump’s Dangerous Instincts on China

There must have been a moment, in the first weeks after Chinese leaders learned that a TV star would be America’s next President, when the more optimistic among President Xi Jinping’s advisers pondered the upsides of a Trump Administration. Sure, Trump has few convictions, fewer principles, and no experience to speak of, but the ideological vacuum and his singular focus on isolationism might just play to China’s expansionist vision; his ignorance might even manifest itself as China’s greatest asset. Trump’s unprecedented (in certain respects, they were also “unpresidented”) missives over the past two weeks have likely upended such hopes. Instead, the President-elect has shown that his instinct is to turn the world’s significant bilateral relationships into frighteningly spectacular reality TV, even if doing so means the casual use of the most lethal gambits.

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