Why Charlie Kirk’s killing could herald calmer US-China relations

Many people in the United States and elsewhere are still in shock over the killing of Charlie Kirk. The young conservative influencer, renowned for his provocative debating style and his close ties with US President Donald Trump and his family, was shot last Wednesday on the campus of Utah Valley University during a public discussion on a wide range of issues. One of the topics was gun control, something Kirk vehemently opposed in the name of upholding the Second Amendment.

Tyler Robinson, the suspected shooter, was taken into custody days after the incident, and it appears that the motivation behind the killing was political. A furious Trump expressed his sorrow immediately after the shooting, ordering US flags to be flown at half-mast in Kirk’s honour and vowing to award him the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously.

The shooting has sparked a flurry of analysis and punditry, with some invoking president Abraham Lincoln’s famous 1858 admonition that “a house divided against itself cannot stand”. I see a correlation between the domestic event and America’s external strategy under Trump’s stewardship: Kirk’s death could push Trump and his ilk further towards a doctrine that rejects multiculturalism and immigration, inasmuch as their way is the only way the American house can remain standing.