bodyType

customContents

entityId

printArticlePageQuery

filter

article

body

urlAlias

articleSectionsContent

articleSeoArticle

articleSourceHeaderArticle

contentSchemaRenderContent

contentSubHeadlineContent

contentHeadlineContent

mainImagePrintArticleArticle

authorBlockPrintArticleArticle

contentSponsorTagContent

articlePianoPaywallContent

scmpYoutubeContent

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

query printArticlePageQuery(
  $entityId: String!
  $customContents: [CustomContentInput]
  $bodyType: BodyFormatTypeEnum
) {
  article(filter: {entityId: $entityId}) {
    entityId
    body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
      json
    }
    urlAlias
    ...articleSectionsContent
    ...articleSeoArticle_3o8td4
    ...articleSourceHeaderArticle
    ...contentSchemaRenderContent
    ...contentSubHeadlineContent
    ...contentHeadlineContent
    ...mainImagePrintArticleArticle
    ...authorBlockPrintArticleArticle
    ...contentSponsorTagContent
    ...articlePianoPaywallContent
    ...scmpYoutubeContent
    ...hooksTrackPageViewArticle
    id
  }
}

fragment articlePianoPaywallContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksPaywallPromiseContent
}

fragment articleSectionsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sections {
    value {
      ...helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection
      ...entityLink
      name
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment articleSeoArticle_3o8td4 on Article {
  ...hooksArticleSeoArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersGetArticleTypeArticle
  entityId
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
  summary {
    text
  }
  subHeadline {
    text
  }
  body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
    text
  }
  keywords
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  topics {
    name
    entityId
    id
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  images {
    style(filter: {style: "768x768"}) {
      url
    }
  }
  readingTime
}

fragment articleSourceHeaderArticle on Article {
  urlAlias
  ...entityLink
}

fragment authorBlockPrintArticleArticle on Article {
  ...defaultArticleDateContent
  ...authorNamesArticle
}

fragment authorNameAuthor on Author {
  ...entityLink
  name
  entityUuid
}

fragment authorNamesArticle on Article {
  authorLocations
  authors {
    entityId
    location
    ...authorNameAuthor
    id
  }
}

fragment blockquoteQuoteContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment contentHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  socialHeadline
  ...contentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
}

fragment contentNewsletterWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
    id
  }
  sections {
    value {
      relatedNewsletters {
        ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
        id
      }
      id
    }
  }
  ... on Article {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment contentSchemaRenderContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...blockquoteQuoteContent
  ...imageContent
  ...inlineWidgetContent
  ...photoGalleryWidgetContent
  ...scmpYoutubeContent
}

fragment contentShareWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  shortUrl
  socialHeadline
  headline
}

fragment contentSponsorTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentSubHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  subHeadline {
    json
  }
  summary {
    json
  }
  ...contentSchemaRenderContent
}

fragment defaultArticleDateContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksArticleDateUtilsContent
}

fragment entityLink on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  __typename
  entityId
  entityUuid
  urlAlias
  urlRedirect {
    toUrl
    id
  }
  application {
    entityId
    id
  }
  ... on Section {
    fullSectionPath {
      entityId
      id
    }
    parentSection
  }
  ...helpersAppBarVariantBase
  ...helpersApplicationBase
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersAppBarVariantBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsLiveArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...helpersSectionContent
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersApplicationBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
}

fragment helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection on Section {
  name
}

fragment helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle on Article {
  entityId
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  disableOffPlatformContent
  sponsorType
  published
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
}

fragment helpersCheckIsLiveArticle on Article {
  flattenTypeIds
  liveArticle {
    status
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    paywallTypes {
      entityUuid
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle on Article {
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle on Article {
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostiesPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsStyleArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersGetArticleTypeArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        entityId
        id
      }
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter on Newsletter {
  entityId
  name
  alternativeName
  description {
    text
  }
  summary {
    text
  }
  homepageDescription {
    text
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle on Article {
  authors {
    types
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersStyleSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersUseContentSponsorContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    sponsor {
      ...sponsorTagSponsor
      name
      type
      id
    }
    id
  }
  ... on Article {
    sponsorType
  }
  ...helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent
}

fragment hooksArticleDateUtilsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  createdDate
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
}

fragment hooksArticleSeoArticle on Article {
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle
  entityId
  headline
  socialHeadline
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
  images {
    generic_og: style(filter: {style: "og_image_scmp_generic"}) {
      url
    }
    styles(filter: {styles: ["og_image_posties_article", "og_postmag", "og_image_style", "og_image_scmp_analysis", "og_image_scmp_explainer", "og_image_scmp_editorial", "og_image_scmp_fact_check", "og_image_scmp_debate", "og_image_scmp_live", "og_image_scmp_obituary", "og_image_scmp_opinion", "og_image_scmp_review", "og_image_scmp_series", "og_image_scmp_generic"]}) {
      url
      style
    }
    type
  }
  urlAlias
}

fragment hooksContentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        name
        entityId
        description {
          text
        }
        id
      }
    }
    ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  }
  flag
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  ...hooksContentHelperContent
}

fragment hooksContentHelperContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle
  ...helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle
  ...helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle
  flag
}

fragment hooksPaywallPromiseContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
}

fragment hooksTrackPageViewArticle on Article {
  entityId
  publishedDate
  headline
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  entityUuid
}

fragment imageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  ...checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent
}

fragment inlineWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentNewsletterWidgetContent
}

fragment mainImagePrintArticleArticle on Article {
  images {
    title
    url
    isSlideshow
    size_652x446: style(filter: {style: "652x446"}) {
      url
    }
  }
}

fragment photoGalleryDialogContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment photoGalleryWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...photoGalleryDialogContent
}

fragment scmpYoutubeContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  publishedDate
}

fragment sponsorTagSponsor on Sponsor {
  name
  type
  images {
    url
  }
}


sections

types

disableOffPlatformContent

sponsorType

published

headline

socialHeadline

authors

images

publishedDate

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

keywords

topics

readingTime

authorLocations

entityUuid

Stanley Chao

While US President Donald Trump has spared no bombast even when dealing with long-standing American allies, he has been curiously reticent regarding an expected target of his rhetorical ire: China. If anything, Trump has gone out of his way to appease America’s chief rival on the global stage. He invited President Xi Jinping to his inauguration and has signalled the possibility of a new trade deal, not to mention a willingness to allow TikTok’s presence in the US market.
What explains Trump’s relative pivot away from hawkishness towards China? With the usual caveat that the Trump administration has a flair for the unpredictable, I would point to three chief factors: unpleasant memories from Trump’s first term, the well-publicised sway of tech mogul Elon Musk and the lesser-known input of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Combined, they provide reasons one might expect a more pragmatic and compromising tone from Trump as he seeks a new and improved China strategy.
There’s no denying the first Trump administration wreaked havoc on US-China relations. He claimed that China “ripped off the United States like no one has ever done before”. He told Americans that China “raided our factories, offshored our jobs, gutted our industries, stole our intellectual property and violated [its] commitments under the World Trade Organization”.
Trump also accused China of abandoning the “one country, two systems” policy in Hong Kong, prompting him to sign a law backing the city’s pro-democracy protesters. And, of course, he blamed the spread of Covid-19 on China.
In sum, he took US-China relations to their lowest point since Richard Nixon toured the Great Wall on his landmark trip to Beijing as US president.
But there was a problem with Trump’s approach: it didn’t actually work. Take the 25 per cent tariffs he levied on China while professing that “trade wars are good, and easy to win”. They backfired as China simply launched retaliatory tariffs and reined in US exports.




And when both countries finally did sign a trade deal, China failed to fulfil its promise to buy an extra US$200 billion in American imports.
Meanwhile, the hi-tech sanctions on China that began under Trump and continued under Biden failed to stymie China’s technological prowess. Consider Huawei’s resurgence in the smartphone market and its introduction of a new chipset that directly competes with one of Nvidia’s advanced chips for artificial intelligence (AI) computing.
Even Trump admitted that the Chinese start-up DeepSeek’s AI breakthrough “should be a wake-up call” for America. Others might call it a complete intelligence lapse in assessing China’s technological capabilities.
The president’s first-term taunting of China, such as calling Covid-19 “kung flu” at rallies, also backfired. Chinese consumers are increasingly buying things made in China. Some refrained from buying American brands. As a result, iPhone sales underwent a decline in China. Meanwhile, Starbucks faces an onslaught from China-based competitors.


The presence of Musk and Huang on Trump’s radar makes it more likely that the president will learn lessons from his past approaches to China. Both Musk and Huang are highly seasoned China veterans from the business world.
Musk is the more visible influence, of course, as the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency’s programme-shaving spree. Trump obviously respects him enough to give him unprecedented power within the executive branch. But Musk also commands the admiration of Beijing’s political elite. He also has financial stakes on both sides of the Pacific.
Thus, whether for the sake of his own interests or those of the US, Musk is surely advising Trump to cool the China-bashing, play nice and seek a middle ground with the second-most-powerful country in the world.
Like Musk, Huang knows a thing or two about the economic havoc that China can wreak on American companies. Nvidia’s stock lost US$600 billion in market value in just one day following the announcement of DeepSeek’s AI model. Huang, a US citizen born in Taiwan, knows that Xi can send dozens of Fortune 1,000 companies and all of Wall Street reeling with one stroke of a pen, regardless of which tariffs or sanctions Trump imposes that day.


Sources report that Huang and Trump discussed DeepSeek and AI chip exports during a December meeting. That would have been an opportune time for Huang to remind Trump that trade sanctions threatened Nvidia’s China sales but failed to curtail China’s technology prowess as Huang considers Huawei a “formidable” competitor in the production of AI chips.
We are seeing tangible signs that Trump is not eager to reprise his earlier approach to China. If his new China playbook has a motto, it might be “If you can’t beat them, join them”. The last time he threatened Mexico and Canada with 25 per cent tariffs, he increased China’s tariffs only by another 10 per cent, bringing the rate to 20 per cent. While notable enough to appease Trump’s base, the move sends a clear signal to China that he’s prepared to talk.
While Trump has signalled a desire to seek another big trade deal with China, he may prefer a deal that’s a “win-win”. That would be quite a change from the winner-take-all attitude he prefers to project. But, as we should know by now, Trump likes to make deals and, in his second term, he seems to better grasp the strength of Beijing’s hand.


Why second Trump administration is going easy on the China-bashing

Illustration: Craig Stephens

Opinion

World Opinion

China Opinion

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World

Diplomacy

Economy, Trade & Business

China

Knowledge

US-China Relations

Politics

Topics

US-China Trade War

Lessons from past policies and proximity to business leaders are likely to have shifted the US president’s otherwise bellicose tone


Lessons from past policies and proximity to business leaders are likely to have shifted the US president’s otherwise bellicose tone.


US-China relations

Donald Trump

Elon Musk

US-China trade war

US-ally trade wars

Jensen Huang

Nvidia

DeepSeek

Donald Trump’s China policy

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Opinion | Why second Trump administration is going easy on the China-bashing

Lessons from past policies and proximity to business leaders are likely to have shifted the US president’s otherwise bellicose tone