Only one month into his second term, President Trump 2.0 has angered America’s historic allies and wreaked havoc on Uncle Sam’s thoroughly cultivated soft-power politics.
The result could hardly be more obvious: Trump is making it easier for China to overtake the US as the world’s top power.
How is Trump excluding the rest of the world? Let us count the way.
Initially, he has alienated yet close friends with tariffs and political braggadocio. Trump threatened its closest relatives and two of its biggest trading partners, Mexico and Canada, with 25 % taxes if they didn’t comply with his expectations on border control, alerting all US allies.
However, the plainly non-threatening state of Denmark, a NATO alliance no less, may struggle with Trump’s stated desire to acquire Greenland. And, for good measure, Trump has claimed that Taiwan” stole our device business”, threatened to “take up” the Panama Canal and left Zelensky out in the warm while he and Putin personally negotiate an end to Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Trump isn’t really turning over all the rocks in his search for enemies. He is giving them a hurl. In the face of like an onslaught, who would blame also America’s closest friends for second-guessing their partnership with Washington?
Next, Trump is pitting Silicon Valley against the earth. At the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris next week, Vice President JD Vance declined to sign a commitment to “ensuring AI is empty, inclusive, open, honest, healthy, safe and reliable, taking into account global frameworks for all”. Unfortunately, Vance proclaimed the US as the “leader” in AI. In fact, the US was the obvious fool in Paris.
Next, Trump has declared war on green energy. He renounced the US$ 7,500 tax credit for EV purchases and curbed funding to install domestic electric vehicle ( EV ) charging stations. Once, the US is an exception, prioritizing the conservative mantra “drill, baby, chisel” over the alternative energy revolution.
Naturally, many countries have great reason to be disillusioned with the US. But is China really able to position itself as a desirable alternative partner? The answer is certainly – and these, too, we can count the ways.
First, China now has an entry in the area of international commerce. Trump 1.0, which ended badly in his first spit with China, is now a progression. After signing what Trump called a “historical trade agreement” in 2020, China never even managed to purchase an additional$ 200 billion in US imports.
China’s imports in the Global South almost matched those of the US and the EU combined, owing to impure relationships with the US.
Xi wants to be the world’s biggest trading partner for its quick companions, but that is what he wants to become. Canada has precisely what China needs: hardwood, wheat, gas and crabs. Additionally, Chinese foreign direct investments in Mexico have increased by 50 % annually since 2018, from$ 43 billion in 2016 to$ 100 billion in 2023.
Next, when it comes to AI, China has become the companion of global collaboration. The recently released relational artificial intelligence model from Chinese company DeepSeek is open source and open to the public for free.
Also, China’s largest tech firms – Huawei, Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent – are violently developing, investing and promoting open-source technology. This is in striking contrast to American companies like OpenAI, Google and Meta that rely on finished, propriety technology.
China is aware that the global energy balance is also in the hands of those who win the high-tech arms competition. Its strategy to AI is a new form of “ping-pong diplomacy”. China is eager to take the lead in developing and implementing the rules for how AI (among other technologies ) will be implemented.
Third, unlike the US under Trump, China grasps the link between green power, high technology and world identity ( both economic and geopolitical ).
Autonomous driving, for example, can only be implemented in EVs, fossil-fuel cars would have to eat too much energy to move the appropriate number of cameras, computers and electronics.
And only the most advanced AI models that can operate autonomous vehicles successfully with billions ( if not trillions ) of data points. China now garners 76 % of the world’s EV market share, and much of the technology is open source.
In brief, China gets it. Providing cheap, open-source Batteries and AI models isn’t really – as Trump sees it – about the almighty dollar. Instead, it’s sweet energy in the form of 1s and 0s. China may say that it wants to make the planet great again, but Trump emphasizes making America great again.
Trump recently signed an executive order outlawing the use of paper straws in all federal buildings, briefly putting aside his obsession with Greenland ( not to mention Gaza ). ” We’re going back to plastic”, he explained, adding that paper straws “explode if something’s hot”. The rest of the world is, to be honest, concerned about other types of bombs.
America’s friends today face a choice. Do they choose free industry over taxes, open source over finished systems, and green power over fossil fuels? Amazingly, Trump has allowed China to seize the mantle of improvement in all three areas.
His strategy is shock-inducing but no awesin’. He is aiming for second position for America.
Stanley Chao is the author of ,” Selling to China”  , and has lived and worked in China for over 20 years.