IN HIS REMARKABLE run for the White House, Donald Trump talked a lot about “winning.” But in his administration’s initial interactions with China, it’s Beijing that appears to have scored the biggest victory, when Rex Tillerson reiterated a talking point the Chinese have long embraced. During his inaugural visit to China in March, the new secretary of state described the foundations of the U.S.-China relationship as “win-win cooperation.”
Weeks later, in the run-up to Trump’s i rst faceto- face meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort on April 6 and 7, that phrase continued to echo in high-level foreign policy discussions here and abroad. For Beijing, “win-win” and “mutual respect”—another slogan the secretary of state uttered in March— are code for aiffrming China’s unrivaled power in the Asia-Pacii c. Trump and leading advisers like Tillerson, neophytes to U.S.-China relations, may toss around statements and threats without much deliberation. But the Chinese take language very seriously. Which is why Beijing was gloating in the aftermath of Tillerson’s visit, while traditional allies were rattled.
While neither Trump nor Tillerson repeated those terms in their public remarks with Xi in Florida, Trump’s glowing description of the two presidents’ i rst interactions—he called their relationship “outstanding” in a brief public statement— and lack of substantive output did nothing to dispel the uncertainty about the president’s China policy. “I can’t think of a meeting that has created so much anxiety among Asia watchers and allies alike because of the confusion,” says Ambassador Derek Mitchell, who oversaw the Defense Department’s security policy in Asia during President Barack Obama’s i rst term. The rising concern among observers and diplomats: Despite all of Trump’s tough talk and his recent warning of “a very dii cult” discussion with China, his administration’s naïveté about how Beijing operates and his overweening desire to cut deals could leave the U.S. weaker in Asia.