Donald Trump’s unpredictability clouds his true feelings about China, former US State Department official says
- When Trump does speak about Hong Kong, he ‘sounds a little bit more like a Chinese leader than American one’, says Kurt Campbell
- US president’s respect for Xi Jinping is ‘probably for the wrong reasons’, says ex-Obama administration official
US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable nature and the fact that he has further surrounded himself with China hawks has led to uncertainty and a strain on American alliances, a former US senior official said on Tuesday.
Speaking at an event in the Hudson Institute in Washington, Kurt Campbell, who was assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs during the Obama administration, said the “real deep state in the US government” is wary of Trump and is unsure about his real stance on China.
“On the one hand, he has a deeply abiding respect for President Xi [Jinping], but probably for the wrong reasons, because he's an extraordinarily effective autocrat. Look at how he treats the press and his political adversaries,” Campbell said.
Campbell said questions have also been raised about whether Trump would support Taiwan against increasing threats from mainland China, noting that when Trump occasionally speaks about Hong Kong, he “sounds a little bit more like a Chinese leader than American one”, which has aroused wariness in some corners, including the White House’s National Security Council (NSC).
Campbell added: “There is a very substantial effort now in the US government that really believes that China is the next threat. … I'm not really sure how that will play out, but I do believe some of our alliances will be under greater stress and strain. Their leaders really have to figure out how to manage the unpredictability of President Trump.”