Day: November 21, 2024

AS DONALD TRUMP assembles his foreign-policy team, many of his picks display a common characteristic: they are strident China hawks. Those seeking a tougher approach towards America’s rival range from Mike Waltz, Mr Trump’s proposed national security adviser, to Marco Rubio, his nominee for secretary of state. Part of their job will be to grasp how relations have changed in the four years since the last Trump administration, a period in which the Chinese economy has sagged, tensions around Taiwan and in the South China Sea have grown, and the…

ONE OF THE many legacies of Donald Trump’s first trade war with China is that pigs in the country now have a more varied diet. In response to Mr Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods in 2018, China imposed a 25% levy on American farm products. That included soyabeans, which China uses for protein in animal feed. Much of the levy was waived in 2019, but the damage was done. When Mr Trump’s first term began, some 40% of China’s soyabean imports came from America. As he prepares for his second,…