Is Donald Trump’s family America’s best hope or biggest risk in repairing US-China relations?
At a time of strain in the countries’ relationship, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s efforts to improve the climate could falter, China analysts warn
After a week of US government decisions that infuriated Beijing, US President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner may emerge as the US government’s best hope for getting the bilateral relationship back on track.
And their efforts could backfire, warned prominent China analysts, including award-winning author Orville Schell.
The US government’s approval of arms sales to Taiwan and a Senate committee provision allowing US naval ships to call in Taiwanese ports chilled the friendly relations Trump established during his summit meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Florida three months ago.
Other developments of the past week, including the State Department’s high-profile downgrade of China’s status in global efforts to fight human trafficking, “represent a return to the mean in US-China relations”, said Robert Daly of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Centre.
These developments follow months of unsuccessful efforts on the part of Trump’s administration to get Beijing to put enough pressure on Pyongyang to convince its neighbour to give up its nuclear weapons programme.