Bloomberg

Trump Is Set to Elevate China Hawks, Deepening Beijing Rift

Tue, November 12, 2024 at 4:47 AM EST 6 min read


(Bloomberg) -- US President-elect Donald Trump is poised to pick two men with track records of harshly criticizing China for key posts in his administration, a sign ties between the superpowers may deteriorate further in coming years.

Senator Marco Rubio - who has taken an aggressive stance on China's emergence as an economic power - is set to become the first sitting secretary of state to have been sanctioned by Beijing, adding fresh turbulence to a tense relationship. Florida Representative Mike Waltz, who in 2021 declared America was in "a Cold War with the Chinese Communist Party," is in line to become national security adviser.

Elise Stefanik, Trump's nomination as US ambassador to the United Nations, has also been outspoken on China. She cited countering national security and economic threats posed by the "Chinese Communist government" as one of her priorities when serving as congresswoman for New York.

Trump's emerging bench of high-profile China hawks gives some indication of the direction his next term will take, after the Republican campaigned on threats to unleash a 60% tariff on Chinese products. Economists say that would decimate trade between the world's largest economies, dealing a blow to Beijing just as policymakers roll out a major stimulus package to put their nation's wobbling economy on firmer footing.

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