China Fears Trump’s “America First” Agenda

Outside of Democrat Party operatives, perhaps no one was more disheartened by President Joe Biden’s debate night debacle than the Chinese Communist Party.

While Biden has attempted to mimic Trump’s tough-on-China stance for the past four years, Beijing has not been fooled by the charade, and China once again appears to have the upper hand in the economic relationship between the two countries. But the prospect of Trump’s return to the White House next January has given CCP officials good reason for concern.

The Biden administration did levy some new tariffs on Chinese imports earlier this year, supposedly targeting a range of “strategic sectors.” But in a revealing response following that announcement, Chinese cyber propagandists on social media ridiculed the move, with one suggesting that an appropriate Chinese countermeasure could be Beijing imposing “200 percent tariffs on American buffalo” – implying that Biden’s “targeted” tariffs had entirely missed the mark.

The CCP seems to have recognized that Biden’s tough on China rhetoric has not at all matched up with the actual policies of his administration. Most Chinese businesses who have set up shop in the United States are still thriving, and American companies continue to rely heavily on Chinese imports for things like rare earth minerals and electronics components.

But Dr. Shufen Yóulǎn, a retired Chinese economist, told me in an interview that, amid Trump’s growing polling lead, “The spirit of America First can be sensed by the CCP at their shores, and it is the source of their biggest fears.”

Dr. Yóulǎn also said that Biden’s latest round of tariffs seemed to be more of a campaign move than a wise policy decision – a marked contrast to the effectiveness of the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.

One of the most effective Trump tariffs (which Biden has kept in place) was a 25 percent tariff on all car imports from China in response to Beijing’s trade abuses. As Trump’s United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer clarifies in his latest book, No Trade Is Free: Changing Course, Taking on China, and Helping America’s Workers, these abuses include arbitrary Chinese tariffs and illegal tax rebates designed to gain an unfair advantage in the American market. Lighthizer also explained that this action “prevented a potential surge in car imports and protected U.S. workers.”

The European Union, which failed to enact such protections, is now reaping the whirlwind of that decision. Chinese car exports to the E.U. have increased more than sixfold in just five years, and multiple European automakers have taken devastating losses.

One confidential source told me that the CCP is so anxious about Trump’s return that, upon No Trade is Free’s publication last year, the CCP Central Financial and Economic Affairs Commission instantly obtained copies of the book for its potential insights into the trade policies of a second Trump administration, hoping to pre-empt the former president.

Dr. Yóulǎn also told me that the CCP fears Trump’s America First agenda will undermine their Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a massive global infrastructure project meant to propel China ahead of the United States by extending Chinese influence around the world. China has launched BRI projects in dozens of countries, importing Chinese workers to take advantage of local resources in a neo-colonialist scheme to reverse China’s economic malaise at home.

BRI projects, while presented to developing nations as a generous gift from China, allow Beijing to exert control over weaker nations. The program addresses two significant issues for Beijing: the lack of a market for overproduction and the insufficiency of natural resources in mainland China to sustain economic growth.

China also benefits by gaining political leverage over borrower nations, allowing Beijing to control a powerful bloc of votes of member nations in international bodies like the United Nations.

But the CCP’s BRI ambitions – and hence their hopes for staving off economic catastrophe – are dependent on a compliant United States. By holding China accountable for its abuses and preventing Chinese manufacturers from flooding American markets with cheap imports, Trump’s America First agenda threatens to bring the CCP’s plans crashing down. Beijing also fears that Trump may further limit China’s access to international institutions like the World Trade Organization and World Monetary Fund, another crucial part of China’s schemes.

Retired economist Gianluigi Brusasca, an advisor to Italian Foreign Minister Emilio Colombo in the 1980s, told me that he sees in Trump’s America First agenda a strategy akin to the one that brought down the Soviet Union. “Since the fall of the U.S.S.R, America has lacked such a long-term plan, and the CCP views America First as a path to American revival and China’s weakening,” he said.

While America First is, as the name suggests, first and foremost about the American people, it is also of vital importance to the rest of the world, particularly America’s democratic allies. When the United States is strong and confident, it keeps bad actors like China at bay, and less powerful nations that might otherwise fall under Beijing’s malign influence benefit as a result.

In this sense, the entire free world has good reason to root for Donald Trump’s re-election this fall.

Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian, and researcher.