Abstract:

After Donald Trump’s return to power, the United States recalibrated its strategy towards China from three dimensions. These include positioning China as a “near-peer competitor” in terms of strategic orientation, viewing China primarily as a “structural challenge” in the economic and technological fields in terms of threat assessment, and shifting to an approach that is “economic coercion first, military deterrence second” in terms of competitive means. To counterbalance China’s rise, the Trump administration gradually formed a “three-pronged” framework for its China policies, a “trinity” consisting of “strategic containment,” “coercive transaction,” and “utilitarian cooperation,” aiming to promote US interests while maintaining its competitive edge over China. Due to factors such as Trump’s capricious decision-making style, policy disagreements within the executive branch, partisan bickering, and power struggles between the executive and legislative branches, US policy towards China and the development of Sino–US relations have consistently faced significant uncertainties.

Keywords:

Trump, American strategy toward China, China–US relations, Science and technology competition, government–Congress conflict, strategic competitor