Donald Trump plans to become much more difficult in talks with President Xi Jingping of China and intends to be more economically aggressive against the economic powerhouse in his national security strategy. The national security strategy is a document that every president has released, stating their goals for the country both domestic and abroad as well as outlining policy objectives that the President would like to achieve. As a result, the national security strategy will be scrutinized and paid close attention by not only US onlookers but interested parties and governments across the globe. The president is expected to be much more harsh on China than previous presidents, claiming that China has engaged in "economic aggression" against the United States.
This claim of "Economic aggression" has largely been false as China has mostly engaged in investment for its own country in addition to bolstering its strength abroad by engaging in various other markets. There is no evidence that China is purposely manipulating markets in its favor, but rather playing the game of economics very carefully in order to further develop its economy. However, Trump believes that China has made the US its enemy and as such is seeking to "strike back" at the world's second largest economy. This is a baseless decision and will have devastating consequences and may even hurt the US' foreign economic interests rather than aid them. In fact, President Trump has already handed China a significant economic advantage in the form of clean energy. By pulling out of the Paris Agreement, the US sends a signal that their advances in renewable energy, one of the strongest investment prospects in the modern age. As a result, China has taken up the role of the US and has already increased jobs in that sector, leading to robust economic growth both domestically and abroad.
President Trump must engage with China very carefully as any sort of aggressive actions could mistakenly start a trade war neither economy wants. The United States would suffer drastically from a trade war as well as would China, however throughout a trade war, China would succeed and be in a more advantageous position than the US would in terms of the economic and market damages both economies would endure. The US is also currently not in an advantageous position to be making aggressive moves against China. While the stock market has been booming, the economy has been showing roughly the same level of growth as before, however our industries have not been innovating as much as China's industries. Our current market strength is not suited to sustain economic aggression against China no matter the basis.
