In the U.S.-China trade war, the Trump administration has been playing checkers while Beijing plays chess. Rather than protecting American interests by being tough, our government has been undermining our own natural advantages, while enabling China’s own successful economic and geopolitical strategies.
The United States has been alienating our allies, building tariff walls and retreating from the international institutions that we created after World War II. Predictably, the Chinese have quickly filled the vacuum. Though much damage has been done in the past two years, and the current engagement with China is erratic and sloppy, all is not lost. The U.S. must step back onto the global stage rather than forfeit international leadership — and the 21st century — to China. But to do that, the U.S. needs to acknowledge and address our policy failures in these four critical areas:
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