China's strategic composure under Trump, explained

Added: 2026-05-14

[00:00:00]President Donald Trump is starting a state visit to the Chinese capital on Wednesday. What does this visit mean for China-US relations? How does China see things? And what is the US's position toward China? What impact could President Trump's visit have on bilateral relations and the wider international landscape? I sit down with Wu Xinbo, Dean of the Institute of International Studies and Director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai. I began by asking him how China views its relations with the US.

[00:00:36]On the one hand, we still want to, you know, uh, promote cooperation with the US because we think that is good for China.

[00:00:45]That is good for the US. It's good for the rest of world.

[00:00:49]But on the other hand, we should not be too naive because the US has already taken taken on China as a major competitor. So, we have to learn how to compete with the US.

[00:01:03]You You have to fight when the other side, you know, uh, is ready to fight. So, I think the Chinese approach to the US, you know, is like is just a like a coin with with two sides.

[00:01:17]One side is cooperation and coordination. The other side is competition and even, uh, conflict. And we should be prepared for both.

[00:01:28]Of course, from a Chinese perspective, we always hope that in this relationship, we should have more cooperation than competition.

[00:01:38]We should, uh, have more coordination than friction.

[00:01:43]But, uh, at the end of the day, that is not just, you know, up to China to decide.

[00:01:50]It has to, you know, get Washington to respond to China's initiative as well.

[00:01:56]What is uh President Trump's view and strategy toward China despite, you know, the public rhetoric and especially compared with previous administrations or even with his own uh you know, first term, how has President Trump's approach towards China changed?

[00:02:15]You might have the vision in the second Trump administration, President Trump has gone through a learning curve.

[00:02:22]At the very beginning, you know, he somewhat uh looked down upon China and he believed as advised by some of his hawkish advisers that the best way to deal with China is to keep pushing China, to pressure China. This is why he started the tariff war at the very beginning of second administration.

[00:02:47]However, as China fought back and the US retreated, Trump began to realize that China is more powerful and resourceful than he realized this. And also, the Chinese leaders and the public as well are more determined to fight back against US pressure.

[00:03:11]So, Trump began to have a fresh look at China.

[00:03:15]At same time, he also has learned something new about the nature of China-US relations.

[00:03:23]In the past, he tended to view this relationship as a zero-sum game.

[00:03:29]But, after several rounds of fight and talk and compromise and trade-off, he began to realize, well, maybe this relationship is not necessarily a zero-sum thing by nature.

[00:03:45]And if the US cooperate with China, maybe the US, you know, can benefit from the process and this will make the US uh stronger, better, and more prosperous. And for an outsider, for instance, watching this, I mean, people who are not in the United States, who are not US citizens, for instance, for anyone who's watching this from, you know, another part of the world, what could a successful trip bring to them in tangible terms?

[00:04:20]Well, um for those from the uh Midwest in the US, uh they will say um China purchasing more and more US agricultural products, so that is good for their business.

[00:04:37]For the, you know, for the young people who want to purchase the Chinese-produced EVs, which, you know, uh is very cost-effective. They will, you know, uh pay much less when they want to get a fancy EV car in the future. Now, for those um in the financial market all around the world, if there's a good visit uh coming coming out of this uh summit, you will see a big surge in the um um market in the next, you know, several months. So, everyone will benefit from it. As the saying goes, rising tide lifts all boats.

[00:05:24]After all, China and the US are the two largest economies in the world. If they get along get along well with each other, that's the best news to the entire world.

[00:05:36]How about those who have been potentially impacted or who have been impacted as a result of the shift towards China of US manufacturing, those who are in the traditional car producing industry for instance in the United States, are they going to feel happy as well about a successful trip and about a potential deal to open the market market access towards Chinese made EVs?

[00:06:04]Well, um I hope the US will, you know, open its market wider for Chinese investment, not just for Huawei pro- producers, but also for many other sectors in the manufacturing industry.

[00:06:21]President Trump wants to reinvigorate US manufacturing industry, but he cannot get this done without China's assistance. If the US open arms to the Chinese investment in US manufacturing sector, then many people, including those used employed in the traditional manufacturing industry, they could benefit very much from the process. After all, China is the largest manufacturing power in the world and we can produce many stuff that can be quality and low cost.

[00:07:03]Finally, um what other items may be on China's wish list because just now we talked a lot about what President Trump is eyeing from this trip, but what is China eyeing uh on this trip besides exporting, you know, Chinese made NEVs to the United States? What is China's um expectations from the success of this visit?

[00:07:28]Well, in addition to the Taiwan issue, um in trade and economics, China wants uh less tariff, uh less sanctions against Chinese entities, uh, less export controls over, you know, semiconductors, or uh, other, um, important articles that we have been importing from the US.

[00:07:56]Less restrictions on two-way investments.

[00:08:00]So, that's what China would expect in trade economics.

[00:08:07]Yeah, another area which is a very much important to me as a university professor is that we want to see less obstacles imposed by the US to people to people exchanges.

[00:08:24]Today, I mean, the cultural and educational exchanges between China and US have been, um, seriously strained because of the policies that have been put in place since the first Trump administration.

[00:08:43]Many Chinese students, scholars, including I myself, Mhm. have suffered from this kind of policy.

[00:08:53]In the long term, that's only in going to cut off the people-to-people ties between two countries.

[00:09:01]And that undermine the mutual understanding.

[00:09:06]That undermine the, you know, goodwill between two peoples toward each other.

[00:09:13]That undermine the capacity on each side, especially on the part of the US, to understand China and to, you know, observe China from a first-hand, uh, perspective.