Tag: United States International Relations

What a Speech Reveals About Trump’s Plans for Nuclear Weapons

Media Library

Within hours of the expiration last week of thefinal arms control treaty between Moscow and Washington, the State Department sent its top arms diplomat, Thomas G. DiNanno, to Geneva to lay out Washington’s vision for the future. His public address envisioned a future filled with waves of nuclear arms buildups and test detonations. The views of President Trump’s administration articulated in Mr. DiNanno’s speech represent a stark break with decades of federal policy. In particular, deep in the speech, he describes a U.S. rationale for going its own way on…

Trump Says His Unpredictable Style Gives Him Leverage. But It Has a Cost.

Media Library

President Trump, who considers himself a master deal maker, has never made any secret of his belief that the secret to winning at negotiation is to keep the other side off balance. But a year into his second term, his act is starting to wear on both allies and adversaries, some of whom are starting to view him as so mercurial and unreliable that they appear willing to consider waiting him out or turning away from him rather than enduring the abrupt starts, stops and humiliations that can accompany engaging…

Gaming Out the Price of a Trump Trade Deal With China

Media Library

Andrew here. We’re digging deeper into President Trump’s tariff talks with China, which have been postponed for another 90 days. (Some critics are calling it another TACO — short for “Trump Always Chickens Out” — moment.) We’re also still thinking about the implications of the deal Trump reached in which Nvidia will pay 15 percent of revenue from A.I. chip sales to China. Will Beijing view this as state-sponsored capitalism? Will Nvidia — and by extension companies like Apple and Tesla — no longer be viewed as independent businesses but…

Tracking Trump’s Tariffs: Rates for China, the E.U. and More

Media Library

MapSize by 2024 imports MapSize by 2024 imports MapSize by 2024 imports MapSize by 2024 imports 10% 20% 54% 104% 145% 30% Feb. 1 March 4 April 2 May 12 Canada 2021 ’21 2022 ’22 2023 ’23 2024 ’24 2025 ’25 May 2025 58% Mexico 2021 ’21 2022 ’22 2023 ’23 2024 ’24 2025 ’25 May 2025 48% MapSize by 2024 imports Active Steel 50 Active Aluminum 50 Active Autos and auto parts 25 In process Copper — In process Lumber — In process Semiconductors — In process Pharmaceuticals —…

Chinese Officers Questioned U.S. Government Employee About His Army Service

Media Library

Chinese intelligence officers began tracking an employee of the U.S. Commerce Department this spring, when he was in southwest China and where he has family members, at one point interrogating him about his prior service in the U.S. military, according to a U.S. government document. The man, who is an American citizen, has been prevented from leaving China since mid-April, according to the document, a State Department cable that was obtained by The New York Times. The cable, from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, was dated May 2 and sent…

Trump Is Breaking the Rule That Every Barroom Brawler Knows

Media Library

Provoking your enemies, alienating your friends and actively sabotaging your own defenses is no one’s idea of a sound national security plan. And yet, this is the playbook that President Trump has apparently followed over the first 100 days of his second term. You can see it most clearly in the global fight he kicked off with China. He’s been scrapping for this showdown since before he entered politics, so you’d think that before taking on such a global powerhouse, he’d strengthen every alliance, game out every possible countermeasure and…

Yellen Sees ‘More Work to Do’ as China Talks End With No Breakthrough

Media Library

Four days of top-level economic meetings between the United States and China concluded in Beijing on Monday with no major breakthrough, but the world’s two largest economies agreed to hold more discussions to address rising friction over trade, investment and national security. The conversation is poised to become even more difficult, however, as hopes of greater economic cooperation collide with a harsh political reality: It is an election year in the United States, and antipathy toward China is running high. At the same time, Chinese officials appeared unmoved by Treasury…

Radio Free Asia Leaves Hong Kong, Citing Security Law

Media Library

The United States-funded news service Radio Free Asia said on Friday that it has closed its office in Hong Kong because of concerns about the city’s recently enacted national security law that targets so-called foreign interference. Hong Kong’s new national security law, which was passed with unusual speed earlier this month, raised “serious questions about our ability to operate in safety,” the broadcaster’s president and chief executive, Bay Fang, said in a statement. Radio Free Asia said that it had relocated some employees from Hong Kong to Taiwan, the United…

Taiwan’s Top Diplomat Says U.S. Aid to Ukraine Is Critical for Deterring China

Media Library

Joseph Wu, the foreign minister of Taiwan, said on Thursday that a halt in U.S. arms shipments to Ukraine would embolden China in its aggressions against Taiwan and fuel propaganda from Beijing that the United States is an unreliable partner. “When people ask us whether it is OK for the United States to abandon Ukraine, the answer is no, because the world is operating not in a black-and-white way, or if you only look at one theater at a time,” he said. “The world is interconnected.” If Russia is able…