A Study Of The Trump Administration's China Policy

The transformation of the international system in today's world,Brexit,the rise of populism,the rise of Trump and other "black swan events" have all greatly accelerated the process of "profound changes unseen in a century" in the world,and exerted a profound impact on the international community,especially the profound change of the Sino-US relations,the strategic landscape between China and the US is shifting increasingly from engagement and cooperation to containment of competition.Look at the current international situation,the accelerating rise of China,and in stark contrast to China is the relative decline of the old capitalist countries,the development gap between the EU countries,Russia,Japan,other developed countries and China is widening,major changes have taken place in the international balance of power.Europe and the United States are experiencing severe economic downturns,slow growth,rising unemployment,sporadic domestic demonstrations,rising racial issues and populism,rising anti-globalization sentiment.At the same time,including the fourth industrial revolution,new energy,artificial intelligence,the development of quantum science,the advent of the digital economy and other new variables in the new era,are changing the power of countries across the world will even rewrite the world economy.Under the combined action of the above factors,all countries in the world will face a new era that is more severe and complicated.At the same time,the United States is facing unprecedented political polarization and social tearing.It is under this special background that Trump was elected,and his China policy has become an important policy topic of academic attention and research.Since Trump has adopted a "whole-of-government" approach to China policy,in order to fully analyze the basic context of his China policy,this paper makes a comprehensive and systematic exploration of the background of the Trump administration's China policy from four aspects,and also analyzes the Trump administration's China policy objectives from three levels: political objectives,economic objectives and cultural objectives.Specifically,in terms of political goals,the Trump administration has defined China as the main strategic competitor of the United States in the world,and made full use of its Allies in the Indo-Pacific region at the expense of their interests.On the one hand,it reduces military expenditure to protect itself,and on the other hand,it maintains a high pressure posture against China,so as to finally realize its own interests and further consolidate its hegemony;in terms of economic goals,the Trump administration takes the trade war as the front line,and the containment of China's scientific and technological development as the core,trying to interrupt the pace of China's scientific and technological rise,comprehensively curbing the development of China's scientific and technological development,and trying to decouple China's economy;in terms of cultural objectives,the Trump administration,citing China's ideology and cultural export,comprehensive prevention and limited blocking of Sino-US cultural exchanges,accurate prevention of China's cyber security and digital economy of cultural communication;in addition,the power resources of the Trump administration are the party consensus within the government and the unity of the policy elite as well as the tacit and active cooperation of some groups in the domestic society.Trump is adept at using methods such as pressure to promote change,using coercion to force China to compromise,at the same time,the Trump administration has effectively controlled key areas,to make intellectual property protection an international rule in the interests of the United States,make an effort to shape intellectual property protection into an international rule in the interests of the United States,strengthened the built barriers to technology transfer in the United States,stabilized the position of the United States in the international competition,and fully prevented China from obtaining more relevant information in the use of technology,thus widening the technological gap between China and the United States,and effectively preventing China from achieving corner overtaking.In terms of policy implementation,this study elaborates the implementation dimensions of the Trump administration's China policy from four levels: global,regional,unit and individual.At the global level,first of all,the Trump administration is interfering with China's rise,weakening China's international influence,and curbing China's economy and scientific and technological development around the world.Second,the Trump administration is engaged in strategic competition with China with geopolitics at its core.The Trump administration has been aggressively targeting Chinain public opinion.It has not only created a global image of China,but also defined China as a "revisionist state",misinterpreted China's normal foreign policy as "sharp power",politicized the COVID-19 and shifted the blame to China.At the regional level,the Trump administration has optimized its military strategic deployment and resource allocation in the Indo-Pacific region,allowing its Allies to shoulder more of its military expenditure and making it more in line with the logic of "America First".At the same time,it will increase efforts to bring India into the fold and try to weave a China-containment network under the Indo-Pacific framework;At the unit level,the Trump administration has openly launched a multidimensional and all-dimensional strategic containment against China,further deepening its interference in China's internal affairs,it is reflected in the destruction of the political ecological environment in Hong Kong by means of the "revision of the law storm",the active use of the Taiwan card in the Taiwan Strait region,and attempt to disintegrate China from the inside by means of the ethnic issue,and at the same time,it also strengthens the military intervention and ideological confrontation against China,continue to create all kinds of troubles for China in an attempt to make China into a dilemma that is beyond its reach and thus interrupt the process of China's rise;On the personal level,Trump himself has distinct personal characteristics,his background as a businessman makes him more adept at using various game means such as "reciprocal diplomacy","strongman politics",in addition,it also analyzes Trump's "reciprocity diplomacy" and "strongman politics" under his "deal-making" thinking and the "game with China" under "extreme pressure".Finally,the paper makes a comprehensive assessment of the Trump administration's China policy in terms of its means,implementation plan,policy implementation process and policy results.In addition,the measures and results of the Trump administration's China policy will be formulated as the focus of consideration and evaluation.Specifically,the evaluation will focus on the main results achieved in the policy implementation process and the comparison between the policy results and the established policy objectives,so as to consider the completion of the policy objectives and the policy instruments themselves.It also elaborates the impact of the Trump administration's policies on China from three aspects of security,economy and politics,and makes a detailed analysis of the political legacy left by Trump after his downfall.