U.S.-China: From confrontation to coexistence?

AWANI

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently made clear that Washington does not seek conflict with China, a significant shift that signals the White House is looking for more ways to coexist.  Amid trade tensions and geopolitical rivalry, Dr. Benjamin Barton of The University Of Nottingham Malaysia dissects the latest developments in U.S.-China relations and where they may be heading.

Transcript

00:00U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hexeth recently made clear that Washington does not seek conflict with China,

00:07a significant shift that signals the White House is looking for more ways to coexist.

00:12Amid trade tensions and geopolitical rivalry, Dr. Benjamin Barton of the University of Northam, Malaysia,

00:19dissects the latest developments in U.S.-China relations and where they may be heading.

00:25The first administration, it was a lot more, I would say, aggressive, pushing China on different fronts,

00:31including the trade war back then. And also, I think the U.S. was a lot more active in the region under Trump.

00:39This time around, there seems to be somewhat odd differences in the sense that, of course,

00:45Trump is not going to show himself to be weak on China because part of his base, the MAGA base,

00:50wants him to be tough on China. Congress is tough on China.

00:53But, you know, between the way that the U.S. backed down in the tariff escalation

00:59and between some of Trump's rhetoric on, let's say, the commemoration of World War II recently in Beijing

01:04on that particular conference there, Trump was full of praise for China.

01:10I think that, and also, I think the general disinterest as to what's happening in the Indo-Pacific,

01:15which in the first administration was really a big part of Trump's foreign policy agenda,

01:19now doesn't really seem to have as much kind of motion and traction to it,

01:24that indeed we should be reading between the lines that the stance on China has, I think,

01:30softened to a certain extent. I think Trump is looking for other things from China this time around

01:35and more towards the legitimization of his own rule in the U.S.

01:39So that's how I think we should interpret the developments.

01:44Looking ahead, Benjamin expects ties to improve, though some areas will remain key flashpoints.

01:50Across certain sectors, notably if you look at tech, the U.S. and China are rivals and they see each other like that,

01:58and that's not going to discontinue.

01:59If you look at the sanctions, which started under the first Trump administration,

02:04they carried over during Biden's term as president, and then Trump has, of course,

02:09continued and enhanced the scope of sanctions as well.

02:12So, of course, there's the ongoing rivalry. It's there.

02:15But as a general rule, I think Trump is going to go easy on China,

02:19and he's going to allow China a free pass.

02:22I mean, again, you know, drawing comparisons between the two terms.

02:25In the first time, there was so much going on on Hong Kong,

02:28on the treatment of the Uyghur Muslim minority in Xinjiang province.

02:33You know, it wasn't just about imposing sanctions on Huawei or ZTE.

02:38It was all-encompassing.

02:40It was really a sense of containment on China.

02:43I don't see that now.

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