Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare

by Edward Fishman

There was no such behaviorist calculus in the minds of Trump officials. Xi Jinping would not reverse course and abandon his imperial ambitions in the face of American resistance. He believed that supplanting the United States as the world’s preeminent superpower was China’s destiny. The Trump administration thus made little effort to build off-ramps. Washington had declared Chinese domination of global 5G networks as a threat, and it would seek to weaken the companies at the forefront of that threat. The expectation was for this to be a permanent effort, even if no one said so out loud. The penalties were not designed to change behavior but to downsize China’s role in the world economy. Over time, inflicting economic damage on China became an end in and of itself.