The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations

by Daniel Yergin

China’s preponderance in Asia continues to increase. In early 2017, just days after becoming president, Donald Trump yanked the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would have encompassed twelve nations that border the Pacific—though specifically excluding China—in a new bloc representing 40 percent of world trade. It would have asserted U.S. commitment to Asia and given other Asian nations a counterforce to the powerful magnetic field of the Chinese economy. For those nations, it was as much political as economic. Trump’s action was seen in Asia as marking a retreat from the region—and an opportunity for China to fill the vacuum. Indeed, one Chinese called the U.S. withdrawal “a huge gift” to Beijing. No longer hampered by a counterweight, China proceeded with negotiations for its own trade agreements with Asian countries—excluding the United States.