Chinese and American observers have found rare common ground over the chaos radiating from Washington, amid Donald Trump’s renewed trade war with China and his destabilising foreign policy.
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At a Hong Kong event last week, several prominent China watchers from across the Pacific voiced concern over tariffs, the political upheaval in the United States, and the spectre of global instability as the US-led liberal world order unravels.
Despite their stark differences over America’s perceived decline and China’s role in bilateral tensions, observers largely agreed that the US leader’s unpredictability and his “America first” doctrine have intensified superpower rivalry and recent global market turmoil.
But they also said US-China tensions stemmed primarily from structural differences, with Trump serving as a symptom rather than the cause.
In his keynote speech to the gathering hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong last Thursday, Kurt Campbell, former US deputy secretary of state in the Joe Biden administration, warned of an “extraordinarily fluid period” due to the absence of predictability and “careful deliberative process” in Washington.
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“There are no two countries that are more interdependent than the United States and China, and you’ve got to keep that squarely in mind. There are also no two countries more uncomfortable with that interdependence, and we just need to recognise that that is a fact,” he said.