Living with Giants and Inconvenient Truths: The US,China, and Everyone Else

ABSTRACT

The Trump administration is redefining the traditional post-World War II approach to American foreign policy, preferring an “America First” approach instead. At the same time, China is becoming increasingly assertive on the world stage, willing to throw its weight around and threaten smaller countries over any perceived slight. For the smaller countries who viewed the United States as a reliable security partner and China as an increasingly important trade partner, the world is looking increasingly uncertain. This uncertainty is compounded by the Trump administration’s more confrontational approach in its China policy. Other states, including Canada, are trying to navigate between a reluctant Washington and a temperamental and brash Beijing. This article argues that a major reset of US-China relations was both inevitable and needed. That said, it is not so much what the Trump administration is doing, but how it is doing it that is the problem. With its heavy-handed “America First” policies, the Trump administration risks losing the support of other states needed to push back against China.