President Trump never intended to resolve the trade war he created with China. Instead, he will leverage his tariffs to blackmail China into following his way.

US Secretary of State Pompeo is acting more like his country’s top spy than its top diplomat—this aggressive posture is disorienting not only China but the world. The Trump administration’s meandering foreign policy has been further damaged by these mixed-up roles.

Trade negotiations between the United States and China have broken down because the US government says the Chinese were walking back their agreement on matters that had previously been addressed. US negotiators and President Donald Trump were furious, and on May 10, Trump more than doubled US tariffs on $200 billion worth of imports from China. The lead Chinese negotiator, Liu He, told reporters that, because a final agreement was not reached, revisions were not “walked back,” a line that the US side does not seem to buy. The Chinese government has now retaliated, announcing that it will raise tariffs on $60 billion worth of US goods.

On May 21, 2019, Ambassador Cui Tiankai had an interview with the Fox News's Bret Baier Special Report.

The recent crisis in Venezuela showed diverging Chinese and American attitudes towards global governance: China’s longstanding commitment to non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs, and rejection of military force as a tool of diplomacy; contrasted with the Trump administration’s response, that displayed America’s penchant for interventionism backed up by the US military.

A racially charged speech by a senior US State Department official has revived the controversial “Clash of Civilizations” thesis. But despite the Trump administration’s provocative re-definition of China as a strategic competitor, the long-term benefits of Sino-US cooperation will show this “clash” to be a false narrative.

US President Donald Trump’s administration has shown little interest in public diplomacy. And yet public diplomacy – a government’s efforts to communicate directly with other countries’ publics – is one of the key instruments policymakers use to generate soft power, and the current information revolution makes such instruments more important than ever.

American leadership helped build the multilateral world order after World War II, but now US unilateralism — spurred by domestic partisan divisions — is undermining the UN, the WTO, and accords on Iran and climate change. US allies’ continued cooperation on a successor to the TPP, and China’s proposed Belt and Road Initiative, show that the world will continue down a multilateral path, no matter if the US swerves off onto a unilateralist road.

Despite Duterte’s fiery anti-US rhetoric, the Philippines and the US retain their strong military alliance. Similarly, on China-Philippines relations, Manila’s bark is worse than its bite — alongside South China Sea disagreements, the two sides have rapidly expanding economic ties. A bilateral (not trilateral) approach, with respect for each side’s red lines, is the key to avoiding escalation and deepening cooperation.

Warming political ties over the past three years are beginning to produce economic and security dividends for both China and the Philippines. However, low public trust in China may not easily dissipate.