As President-elect Donald Trump assembles his incoming cabinet, multiple reports indicate he is looking to politicians known for their hardline stances on China to fill key national security and foreign policy roles. The selections could signal a more aggressive US posture toward Beijing in the next administration.
Waltz Tapped for National Security Adviser
According to several outlets, Trump has asked Representative Michael Waltz to serve as his national security adviser. Waltz, a Florida Republican and retired Army National Guard officer, is viewed as a China hawk who has advocated for a tougher approach to the rising Asian power.
As a member of the GOP’s China Task Force, Waltz has been an outspoken critic of Beijing. He called for a US boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in China, citing the “suppression” of information about the initial COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan and the government’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims, which he termed a “genocide.”
Rubio the Frontrunner for State
Meanwhile, the New York Times and Reuters report that Senator Marco Rubio of Florida has emerged as the leading contender for secretary of state in the upcoming Trump administration. Like Waltz, Rubio has established himself as one of the Senate’s foremost China hawks.
In 2019, Rubio urged the Treasury Department to conduct a national security review of the Chinese social media app TikTok’s acquisition of Musical.ly. More recently, as the top Republican on the Senate intelligence committee, he pushed the Biden administration to block all sales to the sanctioned Chinese tech giant Huawei after it introduced a new laptop featuring an Intel processor.
Setting the Stage for Confrontation?
During the campaign, Trump pledged to slap tariffs of 60% on Chinese imports, a move that could impact $500 billion in bilateral trade. The appointment of Waltz and Rubio to his foreign policy team suggests the incoming president intends to follow through on his vows to get tough on China.
The selection of Waltz and Rubio would cement the primacy of China hawks in shaping Trump’s international agenda and ratchet up tensions with Beijing from day one.
– A source close to the transition
Foreign policy experts caution that an overly aggressive stance risks triggering a destructive tit-for-tat dynamic between the world’s two largest economies. An early confrontation could center on Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory but the US is obligated to defend under the Taiwan Relations Act.
- Both Waltz and Rubio are staunch supporters of Taiwan and have backed arms sales to bolster the island’s defenses against China.
- Trump shattered decades of diplomatic protocol when he accepted a congratulatory call from Taiwan’s president after his 2024 election victory.
As the Trump team takes shape, all eyes will be watching to see how the new administration translates its hawkish campaign rhetoric on China into concrete policy – and whether it can strike a balance between being firm and avoiding a costly conflagration with America’s greatest geopolitical rival.
