Hong Kong
CNN
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President Donald Trump’s plans to end the Russian war in Ukraine are beginning to center around President Donald Trump’s plan, and his administration has been refusing to join NATO and return to the sovereign border before 2014. It appears to accept some of the Kremlin’s important demands that they not do.
Amid the dust of what appears to have blown up the previous US position on peace, another administration’s priorities are also focused. It’s a change in attention from Europe to China.
At a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegses said “a clear strategic reality prevents the United States from focusing primarily on Europe’s safety.”
One focus should be US border security, he told his counterparts to discuss Ukraine’s security. The other was Beijing.
“We also have the capacity and intention to face fellow communist competitors and threaten our core national interests in our hometown and the Indo-Pacific,” Hegses said. “The US is prioritizing deterring war with China in the Pacific, recognizing the reality of rarity and making resource trade-offs to ensure deterrence does not fail.”
Beijing has taken great care in Hegses’ declaration as the US strengthened economic competition with China earlier this month, launching a 10% tariff on all Chinese imports, and there is more to it. There’s no doubt that you’re paying.
China welcomes what was an unexpected and warm start to the second round of the Trump administration, with US leaders repeatedly expressing positive views on the possibility of cooperation with Chinese leader Xi Jinping .
Beijing officials would also have hoped that Trump’s defending US foreign policy would weaken America’s alliance in Asia. China has tightened its ties with its US partners, including Japan, South Korea and the Philippines, under former President Joe Biden.
Now it is clear that they are closely watching how the US will adjust its stance in areas where Beijing wants to expand its influence and expand its influence on the South China Sea and Taiwan’s self-driven democracy. is.
They are also likely to have another pressing concern: whether Trump’s overture to Russian President Vladimir Putin will pull Moscow – an important ally of XI in competition with the West – from Beijing, And then headed out towards Washington.
China’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday said it “welcomes the strengthening of communication and dialogue” between the US and Russia.
“China supports every effort to encourage a peaceful resolution of the crisis, and continues to maintain communication with all involved parties and play a constructive role in promoting political resolution of the crisis.” Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said at regular press conferences.
Xi and Putin remembered a “no-limit” partnership before Russian tanks rolled across the border into Ukraine. The two continued to tighten relations during the war, and emerged as an important economic lifeline for Russia, including empowering the Russian industrial complex through the provision of major Russian goods. I’m doing it. Beijing defends it as normal trade.
This relationship has been a more broadly and long premised on the shared neglect of two leaders to the NATO and the US alliance. Putin and XI work in tandem to build non-Western international groups, strengthen joint military training and support each other in forums like the UN.
In other words, warming in Washington’s relationship with President Putin could have far-reaching impacts on China’s ability to counter US pressure, moving forward Xi’s vision for an alternative to the US-led world order. You can do it.
It also immediately raises questions about how XI mediates the conclusion of the conflict with Trump, or whether it will be on the sidelines in the process of Chinese officials telegraphing for a long time.
Meanwhile, observers say Beijing may also be paying close attention to how the US and the international community will look to Taiwan’s unique design and deal with the potential solution to this conflict. It’s there.
China’s Communist Party has argued that the island is itself, despite the fact that the island never ruled it, and Xi Jin has vowed to force it to control it if necessary. .
The United States is the leading weapons supplier for the self-excluded island, and is bound by law to provide Taiwan with a means to protect itself.
Speaking to CNN’s Kaitlin Collins on Wednesday, former Trump national security adviser John Bolton said Beijing now believes the US “doesn’t want to oppose unprovoked aggression in the heart of Europe.” I stated.
“What are they thinking about Taiwan now?” Bolton said.
