WASHINGTON ¨C When President Donald Trump returned to office in 2025, he vowed to use tariffs to reset relations with China, which ?he said was ¡°killing¡± the United States with its trade policies.
Now, more than a year into his second term, Trump¡¯s aggressive trade moves have not fundamentally altered Beijing¡¯s trade or military actions. Instead, Washington¡¯s China policy appears adrift, causing confusion among officials and driving contradictory decisions.
The administration¡¯s erratic moves toward Beijing have been on full display in recent months. Those include adding top Chinese companies to a military blacklist only to withdraw the list moments later, and a decision by Trump to greenlight AI semiconductor sales to China within minutes of his government labeling Chinese access to them a national security threat.
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