Trump’s National Security Strategy throws “engagement” and the WTO consensus out the window. It casts China as a deeply menacing geopolitical rival and at the top among America’s “adversaries.” It is a “revisionist” power (along with Russia) that is seeking “to shape a world antithetical to our interests and values.”16 The Department of Defense followed up with its National Defense Strategy, which declared that “China is a strategic competitor using predatory economics to intimidate its neighbors while militarizing features in the South China Sea.”
