Trump isn’t interested in war with China. But it might be interested in him.
Since President Donald Trump’s second term began, his administration’s approach to China has been arguably the toughest aspect of its foreign policy to parse. In part, that’s because the top members of Trump’s team haven’t always seemed to be on the same page with each other or with the president on the question of just how confrontational to be with America’s closest superpower rival.
If there was something of an emerging consensus, it was that Trump has been willing to confront China on trade and economic issues — though through its effective weaponization of rare earth mineral supply chains, the nation has proved tougher to pressure via trade than most other countries on the receiving end of Trump’s tariffs. At the same time, he has been less interested in competing militarily and geopolitically with China, a competition that has consumed much of Washington — including his own first-term administration — in recent years.
Heading into Trump’s meeting on Thursday with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea, Semafor’s Ben Smith predicted the occasion would “end Washington’s decade of China hawks.” The fear among many was that Xi would exploit Trump’s desperation for a trade deal for concessions on the geopolitical questions he knows Trump is less interested in. In particular, Xi is reportedly seeking a statement from Trump formally opposing Taiwan’s independence. (The current US position is that it does not support a unilateral move toward Taiwan independence. That might not seem like a major distinction, but this is a conflict where subtleties like this can have enormous consequences.) Before the meeting, one Trump aide told NBC News that “everyone is holding their breath” to hear what he would say about Taiwan.
In the end, according to Trump, the issue did not even come up at the meeting in Korea. In the talks that Trump rated a “12 out of 10,” the two leaders reached a truce of sorts of trade issues: Trump said he would reduce tariffs on China by 10 percentage points, while Xi agreed to resume US soybean purchases, lift restrictions on rare earths exports, and promised to crack down on Chinese exports of chemicals that are used to make fentanyl.
So, has the temperature been lowered? Well, sure — for all issues but the small matter of nuclear war.Trump drops a nuclear “bombshell”
Just minutes ahead of the meeting with Xi, Trump posted a message on Truth Social announcing that he had ordered the resumption of nuclear testing:
It’s hard to know exactly how to interpret this announcement since most of it is inaccurate. Russia has more nuclear weapons than the United States; the ongoing US nuclear modernization program is years from completion. China is building up its arsenal, but it won’t be even with the US in five years under even the most dire Pentagon estimates. The Department of Energy, not Defense, is responsible for nuclear testing.
No country, other than North Korea, has actually detonated a nuclear weapon since the 1990s. It’s possible Trump was referring to Russia’s recent test of a nuclear-capable and nuclear-powered torpedo.
Trump didn’t answer a reporter’s question about the announcement in Korea, and the White House has not yet responded to Vox’s request for clarification.
