Çovid-19 left more than 530,000 Americans dead and China’s position with the US at an all-time low. Only Iran and North Korea are worse off. The US opinion is no different. China’s reputation has been defeated in Australia, the United Kingdom, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany. Images of tanks passing Tiananmen Square in the summer of 1989 were supplanted by Beijing’s stone barrier on the origins of the plague.
In Chaos Under Heaven, Washington Post reporter Josh Rogin reminds us that under Xi Jinping, China has suspended the export of personal protective equipment made by American companies, sent defective PPE to the Netherlands and stopped Australian beef exports after it Canberra asked for an inquiry into the genesis of Covid-19. At the Rogin’s Revealingly, China’s “mask diplomacy” was a blunt instrument, designed to still criticize abroad and sow fear at home.
Rogin offers the minimum necessary clarity. Under the caption Trump, Xi and the Battle for the 21st Century, it exposes what the U.S. and its allies have been wrong about China for decades, conflicts within the Trump administration and personal financial conflicts that have affected US policy. Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, and Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump appear heavily. But Hunter and James Biden also deserve attention.
McConnell’s wealth is linked to his wife’s family’s interest in Chinese shipping. Angela Chao, her sister-in-law, is the company’s chief executive and sits on the Bank of China board. Most recently, the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation reported that Elaine Chao, McConnell’s wife and Trump’s transportation secretary, escaped the criminal investigation after the justice department spoke out.
In the fall of 2019, McConnell and Trump thwarted the progress of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy bill, which had passed the Senate foreign affairs committee, then controlled by Republicans. In 1992, McConnell supported legislation enacted in connection with Hong Kong’s autonomy. In the late summer of 2019, he wrote a supporting article. Time – and perhaps marriage – can change perspective.
Rogin has long-standing interests in human rights and the Far East. He spent the first days of his career at Asahi Shimbun, a Japanese daily, and most recently lived with an informal group of opponents to the Chinese regime, which he calls “Clube do Bingo”. One of the members was Peter Mattis, a former CIA analyst and nephew of James Mattis, Trump’s first defense secretary. During the 2016 Republican convention, Rogin told the story of the Trump campaign “destroying” the Republican Party’s anti-Russia platform in Ukraine.
Chaos Under Heaven moves quickly, is well written and attracts the reader. Rogin makes it clear that the tension between Beijing and Washington is likely to remain in the foreseeable future. China’s economy and armed forces continue to grow, America’s social chasms remain on display. Under Xi, don’t expect the Middle Kingdom to back down.
One of Rogin’s central points is that Trump correctly identified the threat and challenge posed by China, but was unable to formulate a coherent strategy and follow it. Most of the time, he confused personal relationships with national interest. As his approach to North Korea showed, not everyone was buying what he was selling. His effort to lure China into that quagmire was a failure. The art of the deal is much more difficult than Trump has proclaimed.
On the ground, the food struggles of 2016 moved to the White House. The west wing was divided by factions. Wall Street transplants, military veterans and die-hard Magalites exchanged verbal blows. The former reality show host zigzagged, blowing hot and cold as the TV and his mood dominated him.
During the 2016 transition, Trump accepted a congratulatory phone call from Tsai Ing-wen, president of Taiwan. It is not surprising that China was furious – she regards the island as her own. Ambiguity in relation to Taiwan was fundamental to the United States’ rapprochement with China in the 1970s. Trump responded to his words, invited Xi to go to Mar-a-Lago and gave him the “most beautiful piece of chocolate you’ve ever seen ”.
As for Trump’s opinion of Taiwan, he told a senator that he was “half a meter from China” and that the United States was “eight thousand miles away”. Trump added frighteningly that, if the Chinese invaded, “there is no fucking thing we can do about it.” So much for US politics.
Trump’s inability to form work alliances has hampered U.S. responses. Confronting China required playing well with others. Trump was unable to put aside personal resentment and pursue consensus. At times, he gave in to the technological threat that China posed, with the aim of closing an elusive trade deal.
On the positive side of accounting, Beijing’s conduct during the pandemic made governments realize that “their dependence on China was a political vulnerability”. The United Kingdom reversed the course and banned Huawei, the Chinese communications giant, from its networks.
No book on Trump is complete without at least a lustful piece. Chaos Under Heaven reports that Trump came to believe an unfounded rumor that General HR McMaster, his second national security adviser, was having an extramarital affair. As expected, Trump was unable to keep the news to himself.
At a packed Oval Office staff meeting, the ex-president asked, “Did you hear who McMaster is fucking?” Always a puritan, Trump warned, “He’s going to make trouble for all of us if he can’t keep his dick in his pants.” The Manhattan public prosecutor is still investigating all things related to Trump, including payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal.
Rogin notes that Trump was “great at turning over the chess board, but he couldn’t put it back.” That said, he “changed the conversation about China in a way that cannot be undone”.