Donald Trump has been upending the world order since his return to the White House in January. In the final instalment of a three-part series on the implications of Trump’s foreign policy, we look at its effects on China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
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China’s global connectivity push under the Belt and Road Initiative has become an early target for US President Donald Trump’s “America first” policy.
But the same isolationist drive might also give Beijing’s strategy a boost, analysts say, as the US goes from being an architect of the existing world order to its main disrupter instead, potentially unleashing an era of the survival of the fittest.
Still, one observer warned that while China might be able to unlock new “strategic opportunities” under its belt and road infrastructure and investment plan, overseas Chinese interests were likely to face continued challenges, particularly in the Indo-Pacific and Latin America.
China’s rise and growing global influence have often seen it portrayed as a revisionist power by American policymakers, both Republican and Democrat. They accuse Beijing of seeking to overturn the existing world order, to rewrite international rules to its advantage and build a sphere of influence through economic and military dominance. This view is widely shared by US allies as well.
Countering China has been repeatedly cited by Trump as a primary driver for several foreign policy moves since he returned to the White House in January, including aims to acquire Greenland and reclaim control of the Panama Canal.
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