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The reason for the radical change is due in part to recent events: Hong Kong’s sanctions, for example, are tied to a controversial national security law that recently went into effect. But Trump is also eager to appear tough on China as he heads to his reelection campaign, where he’s polling far behind alleged 2020 rival Joe Biden, who is criticizing the president for his past admiration for Xi and recently revealed plans to invest. in American manufacturing and combat. China’s economic practices.
In response, the Trump campaign in China has accelerated. In the past two weeks, his administration has used a variety of methods (press conferences, new legal trials, numerous opinion pieces, high-profile speeches, travel abroad) to suddenly hit Beijing over long-standing issues that the President often dodged. past.
“It has only gotten worse for China in the polls,” said John McLaughlin, a Trump pollster. “People have always seen China as an economic adversary who stole our jobs, but now they see China as a security threat.”
Trump and his administration have criticized China on specific issues. The reality TV star spoke relentlessly about the country’s business practices in the 2016 election campaign, and his cabinet has regularly warned that the country is trying to force tech companies to hand over data. But the president has always balanced these warnings with high praise from Xi himself, sometimes largely sidestepping human rights concerns, such as Beijing’s breach of Hong Kong’s separate legal system and its arrest of Uighur Muslims, a group ethnic minority.
In recent weeks, however, the tone has changed. And in the past two weeks, the speed and variety of punishments against China have accelerated.
Trump began telling China without warning, making sure to regularly blame him for the coronavirus outbreak that turned into a pandemic that changed the world. And at a press conference last week, Trump Announced new sanctions on Hong Kong after Beijing was granted broad authority to crack down on political dissent in the region, a move that threatens Hong Kong’s independent judiciary. Trump also said he would strip Hong Kong of its preferential trade status on the matter.
At almost the same time, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared China’s expansive land claims in the South China Sea to be “completely illegal,” a sudden announcement that came four years after an international tribunal had already reached the same conclusion. Two days later, Pompeo also revealed The United States would restrict visas for employees of Chinese technology companies, which he says aided in alleged human rights abuses in Beijing. And Tuesday night, the State Department gave Chinese diplomats 72 hours to leave a diplomatic consulate in Houston, claiming that he had been involved in “massive operations of illegal espionage and influence” and other violations of US sovereignty.
In the media, several senior administration officials have been writing opinion pieces highlighting allegations of human rights abuses in China and warning that sourcing Chinese products poses a risk to national security.
Abroad, the administration is flaunting its message. Trump’s national security adviser Robert O’Brien traveled to Europe last week to meet his counterparts, noting that a priority would be the opposition of the Trump administration to Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications firm that competes for contracts to build 5G networks worldwide. The Trump administration has already helped coerce an ally, the United Kingdom, to ban Huawei from its 5G network. Similarly, Pompeo left for the UK and Denmark on Monday, where he planned to discuss “China’s threat to free people around the world,” according to the State Department.
The Pentagon is even making “adjustments” to shift focus to China, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Tuesday in a Zoom call with the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
“While we wait for the [Chinese Communist Party] it will change its ways, we must be prepared for the alternative, “he added.
