‘Don’t poke China but keep it guessing’: White House insider Michael Pillsbury’s take on Trump’s strategy
- US president sees Beijing as competition, not enemy, Pillsbury says
There is scope for Beijing and Washington to build a cooperative relationship but the US has to keep China on edge, according to a top adviser to US President Donald Trump.
Michael Pillsbury, director of the Centre for Chinese Strategy with conservative think tank the Hudson Institute, said Trump had no intention of branding China an “enemy”, but regarded it as a competitor that had to be checked and counterbalanced, and an “unpredictable” US was the way to do that.
Pillsbury, described by Trump as the “leading authority on China”, made the remarks on Tuesday at an event examining the roles of the United States, Japan and India in countering China’s growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region.
The event coincided with trade talks in Washington this week between Chinese and US officials. Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will meet on Thursday to try to beat a March 1 deadline for the US to impose more tariffs on Chinese imports.
The Hudson Institute was also the venue for US Vice-President Mike Pence speech in October in which he called for a tougher approach towards Beijing as the confrontation between China and the US spilled from trade to security and ideology, fuelling fears of a new “cold war”.
The rivalry between the world’s two largest economies has long been anticipated, according to Pillsbury, who said Trump predicted in 2000 that China would be the greatest challenge for the US.