Trump said a lot of harsh things about China during the campaign, but the questions remained: would he fixate on the trade deficit instead of human rights and Chinese aggression in the South China Sea; walk away from Biden’s policy of flexible containment with local allies; and offer to hand over Taiwan in exchange for increased agricultural exports? After all, Trump had always seen our relationship with China in economic, not geopolitical, terms, and he viewed our allies in the regions as being parasites.
The answer to these questions was yes. Once again, Trump’s concept of “America First” meant America alone, largely because he simply assumed, against all advice, that anything Biden did to contain China had to be wrong. We would face China with no meaningful assistance from Japan, South Korea, Australia, or India.