Donald Trump’s South China Sea policy doesn’t resolve contradictions – it embraces them
Robert Delaney says that the US president can trumpet ‘America first’ isolationism one day and a willingness to confront China over its maritime expansion the next, and sell both positions to his base
This one, delivered in a commencement address to US Naval Academy graduates, should be as troubling to Beijing as his negotiating tactics with respect to Pyongyang.
“We’re sharpening the fighting edge of everything from marine infantry squads to combat ships to deliver maximum lethal force,” Trump told the graduating class of 2018.
“The enemy has to know we have them. And we are recommitting to this fundamental truth: we are a maritime nation. And being a maritime nation, we’re surrounded by sea. We must always dominate that sea. We will always dominate the oceans.”
“We’re spending tremendous amounts of money for decades policing the world, and that shouldn’t be the priority,” he added. “We want to police ourselves and we want to rebuild our country.”
From isolationism to a rousing call for projecting military power around the globe in just a few weeks, Trump’s foreign policy would seem as directionless as a compass sitting on the North Pole. He has not only stopped bothering to rationalise policy contradictions. He embraces them.
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On the international front, his tough talk – untethered to a coherent policy foundation – has worked in his favour.
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China demands diplomacy, but only respects force. While Trump may not be a long-term strategist, he understands this about the country’s government because he is himself an authoritarian, self-actualised as the strongman he has always wanted to be, running the world’s most powerful nation as he ran his real estate empire.
Because of this, Washington never needed to brag about its “fighting edge”.
But Beijing is also guilty of contradictions.
Beijing has no interest in assuming the post-war role America’s military has played. They have no doubt learned valuable lessons from the burdens Washington has shouldered as a result of this role.
However, China’s intentions in the South China Sea appear to be evolving.
Trump sees this, or at least his advisers do. In response, the US leader reverts to the kind of rhetoric that appears to work best for him.
Robert Delaney is the Post's US bureau chief, based in New York