While President Trump was locked in a war of words with the chief of Colombia about the military expulsion of the migrants, the China’s ambassador to Colombia said that relations between Beijing and Bogotá were at their “Best moment ”for decades.
Zhu Jingyang, the ambassador, later said that it was a coincidence that he had published his comment on social networks last week, one day after Mr. Trump said that he would slap the prices on Colombia . But public awareness suggested that Beijing has seen the opportunity to strengthen his hand in the rivalry of superpowers with high issues between China and the United States.
Two weeks after the start of the second Trump administration, Mr. Trump’s aggressive policy “America First” is both promising and dangerous for Beijing.
Perils have always been clear: more prices and the risk of a wider trade war. This weekend, Trump imposed additional 10% prices on goods imported from China, saying that prices were a response to China’s failure to limit fentanyl exports. He could respond to all reprisals from China with even higher samples.
But even if Beijing calculates the impact of prices on the weakness of the economy of China, it certainly also takes stock of the openings that the other movements of Mr. Trump give China.
Trump has alienated American allies and partners such as Canada and Mexico by imposing stiff -exporting prices. He weakened the world authority of America by reducing foreign aid and withdrawing from the World Health Organization and the Paris Agreement, a United Nations climate pact.
If the second term Trump marks Pax Americaa’s sunset, analysts say that China will almost certainly benefit from the opportunity to try to reshape the world in its favor. Beijing, who has long accused Washington of having used his domination to contain the rise of China, tried to lead a gap between the United States and its allies, including the European Union, Japan and Australia.
“The Chinese are well aware of the damage caused by Trump and make us credibility and influence on a global scale. In fact, it takes place faster than even Beijing did not expect Beijing, “said Evan S. MedeirosProfessor of Asian studies at the University of Georgetown who was advisor to Asia by President Barack Obama.
Trump’s threats to take the Panama canal and Greenland, as well as to annex Canada as a 51st American state could normalize a world order in which good. It is an approach that is familiar in Beijing, even if Chinese officials support rhetorically that he will never seek hegemony or expansion.
If the United States Silver Panama on its crucial navigable path or oblige Denmark to abandon the territory rich in resources in Greenland, it sends a signal to China only when it comes to its own assertions to the Autona Island From Taiwan and a large part of the Southern China Sea, coercion prevails over cooperation.
“China was certainly never going to abandon Taiwan or the Southern China Sea, but with President Trump doing what he does, China is even more determined to safeguard his interests there, for sure,” said Declared Henry Huiyao Wang, president of the center for China and globalization in Beijing.
Wang said that China had been encouraged by the first two weeks of the new administration despite the prices and the appointment of Bellician advisers such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Michael Waltz, the national security advisor.
Rather than getting out aggressively to face China, Trump presented himself as a person willing to negotiate and potentially conclude an agreement with Xi Jinping, the chief of China. Trump launched the idea of linking the rates to the fate of Tiktok, which he said is expected to be half the owner of an American company.
Another potential area for the conclusion of transactions is Ukraine. Trump said China should help end the Russian war in the Eastern European country. China, as the largest economic and material support supplier in Russia, could in theory put pressure on President Vladimir V. Putin to come to the negotiating table.
“Trump wants the help of China to end the war in Ukraine,” Wang said. “China is one of the best partners for him to do this.”
But with so many competing interests, cooperation would be difficult. China has avoided criticizing the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, for example, taking the position that Russia has the right to protect its national security. Ukraine will not accept China as a peace broker due to the pro-Russian position of China, said Shi Yinhong, professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing. Mr. Putin, on the other hand, will not want to look subordinate to China, he said, while Mr. Trump has “no real stomach” to see China leased for playing a important role.
On the issue of prices, Beijing must decide whether it can afford to degenerate a trade war with the United States. On Sunday, he promised to respond to Mr. Trump’s prices by depositing a case with the World Trade Organization and with countermeasures that will be specified later.
Beijing could fight back with prices. A more drastic approach would be that China engages in the “war of the supply chain”: to interrupt the expeditions to the United States of essential materials and equipment to American industry. In early December, China stopped exporting the United States of minerals such as antimony and gallium, which are necessary to make semiconductors.
The risk for China is that a trade war would be more harmful to itself than it would be for the United States. Exports and construction of factories to make them are among the few forces currently in the Chinese economy. Consequently, China’s trade surplus – the amount by which its exports exceeded imports – reached nearly 1 dollars Billion last year.
China has not yet said how it will react to a potentially further provision from the registration of Mr. Trump’s decree on Saturday: the elimination of duties franchise manipulation for packages of $ 800 per $ 800 per $ per $ 800 per $ 800 per $ 800 per day for each American. The factories in all of China have moved in recent years to electronic trade expeditions directly to American houses, in order to bypass the many prices collected on clothing and other imported goods and sold in American stores.
In the race for global influence, some argue that the Trump administration’s decision to freeze most foreign aids, which has disrupted the world’s aid programs, has already benefited China.
In regions like Southeast Asia, where attitudes to the United States have hardened due to Washington’s support in Israel in the Gaza War, the financing of funding raised questions on American reliability.
“China has nothing to do in the meantime, and yet, in a way, Net-Net, looks like the good guy of all this,” said Jeremy Chan, principal analyst on China in the Eurasia group.
Senator Lindsey Graham, republican of South Carolina, defended the importance of the soft power for the American position.
“If you do not get involved in the world and you do not have programs in Africa, where China is trying to buy the whole continent, we make a mistake,” he said last month.
