WASHINGTON, Sept 12 (Askume) – Former U.S. President Donald Trump adopted a tough stance against China in his foreign policy strategy during his re-election campaign.
But if Trump is elected on November 5, he and China’s leaders will face an awkward reality: Many of the Trump administration’s top nominees for foreign policy positions are subject to Chinese sanctions and barred from entering the country.
Shortly after President Joe Biden took office in 2021, China took the unprecedented step of imposing sanctions on 28 former Trump administration officials for what Beijing believed was the former president’s anti-China policy during his tenure in the White House. Gambling.
The sanctions, which also include a ban on travel to China, apply to former officials, including Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, whom Beijing has called a liar and a ” clown “, and former national security adviser Robert O’Brien.
Pompeo has not ruled out the possibility of working for Trump again, and sources familiar with Trump’s relationship with O’Brien said Pompeo could play a key role in Trump’s second term. Polls show a close race between Republican Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris.
At the very least, China’s openly hostile relationship with potential policymakers in Trump’s second administration will raise questions about how the United States and China will carry forward what they call one of the world’s most important bilateral relationships.
“This issue is new to China,” said Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai. “If these previously sanctioned officials return to the U.S. government, I think from China’s perspective it is unlikely that the sanctions will be lifted immediately.”
But experts and former Trump administration officials say Beijing must address the issue.
“They have to bend over or they won’t make a deal with the Chinese Communist Party,” one former Trump administration official, who still serves in the U.S. government and is subject to sanctions, told Askume, requesting anonymity.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington declined to comment.
Trump campaign spokeswoman Carolyn Levitt told Askume: “President Trump will put America first and will select officials for his administration who he believes are best suited to serve the American people – whether China likes it or not.”
Sanctions for “insane behavior”
In January 2021, China designated and imposed sanctions on 10 former Trump officials for “deranged behavior” and said they “seriously interfered in China’s internal affairs.”
In addition to Pompeo and O’Brien, China has attacked Trump’s top diplomat for East Asia David Stilwell, former White House economist Peter Navarro and Keith Cratchit, an official who met with Beijing during a visit to Taiwan in 2020, adding to the resentment. Some, including former national security adviser John Bolton, have publicly disagreed with Trump, making a return in another administration unlikely.
At that time, China had imposed sanctions on 18 other people but did not reveal their identities.
Many of the measures have helped implement Trump’s aggressive but chaotic policy toward China, with waves of tariffs pushing the two countries into a trade war and claims that Beijing is committing genocide against Uighur Muslims.
Chinese officials have shown their most hostility toward Pompeo, who visited Taiwan as a private citizen in 2022 and called on the United States to recognize Taiwan as a country.
China claims Taiwan as its territory and the issue is a red line in relations with Washington.
Pompeo has said he would consider serving in a second Trump administration. At the Republican National Convention in July, he said serving under Trump was his “greatest honor” and called China the “greatest threat” to the United States.
Pompeo and O’Brien did not respond to requests for comment.
find a solution
Sanctions on officials have hampered US-China diplomacy before.
US sanctions on former Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu led to a months-long standoff in 2023, during which China refused to meet US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.The problem was resolved when China ousted Li Keqiang due to a domestic corruption scandal .
Jack Zhang, an expert on Chinese sanctions at the University of Kansas, said things are complicated this time because Beijing is trying to circumvent US sanctions through the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Act of 2021.
“It ties their hands and is more difficult to postpone than an individual travel ban,” Zhang said.
However, solutions are possible.
This may also include parties seeking a venue in a third country to hold meetings rather than holding them in their respective capitals.
Craig Singleton, a China expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, said Beijing could try to contact Trump administration representatives through secret channels or selectively agree to meet with officials who are not subject to sanctions.
Ivanka Napati, a former White House National Security Council official during the Trump administration, said China could also temporarily ease restrictions on the US.the restrictions that have been imposed .
“It would be easy for the Beijing leadership (to meet with U.S. officials) to signal a bureaucracy where politics always trumps the rule of law.”
