Opinion | With Trump on the rampage, does China have a strategic window?
Although the US president’s destabilising actions might seem like an opportunity for Beijing, it is likely to opt for strategic patience
These developments raise questions: does this trajectory represent one president’s aberration, or structural pressures any American administration would eventually accommodate? And for Beijing specifically: what, if anything, should China do with this apparent strategic window?
The USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group has begun moving towards the Persian Gulf. American forces are now operationally committed across Venezuela, Syria, Nigeria and Somalia, while military pressure mounts on Iran – straining the credibility of an administration that campaigned on ending foreign entanglements.
The Arctic spectacle illuminates an unprecedented Nato conundrum. Following a January 14 White House meeting – which Danish officials characterised as revealing a “fundamental disagreement” – France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Finland said they would dispatch military personnel to Greenland under Operation Arctic Endurance.