- Analysis: During his first term as president, Trump was actively hostile to China, blamed it for the coronavirus pandemic, and wanted to ban TikTok. But this time around there has been a complete reversal. Trump, his DOGE lieutenant Elon Musk, and Chinese premier Xi Jinping are all singing from the same hymn sheet.
It’s Day One of the new Trump Administration. As the new president took the oath of office in the Capitol rotunda shortly after midday, one person will likely be pleased with how things are going so far: Xi Jinping, president of China.
That’s for three reasons:
1. Trump proposed a deal that would rescue TikTok from being banned in the U.S. and the app is now back online for Americans. TikTok, of course, is owned by Chinese company ByteDance. All large Chinese companies are in some way controlled or monitored by the Chinese Communist Party and the Biden-era law banning the app was intended to prevent China from using TikTok to collect vast amounts of data on American citizens and, perhaps, to use its algorithm to push political narratives that favor China. The U.S. Department of Defense labeled it a security risk, and it was largely banned for military personnel.
2. Xi “had an important phone call with President-elect Trump a few days ago and reached an important consensus on the development of China-US relations,” according to a statement from the Chinese government. The statement is extremely bullish on U.S.-China relations under Trump: “American business people said that the recent phone call between President-elect Trump and President Xi Jinping sent a positive signal to the outside world and was exciting. As the world's two most dynamic and technologically advanced economies, the United States and China should carry out mutually beneficial cooperation and find a constructive and stable way to get along.”
3. On January 19, Trump surrogate Elon Musk met with China’s Vice President Han Zheng, and the pair agreed that it would be good to deepen Tesla’s ties to China. “On the same day, Han Zheng met with Tesla CEO Musk and expressed his welcome for American companies, including Tesla, to seize the opportunity, share the fruits of China's development, and make new and greater contributions to promoting China-US economic and trade relations,” the statement said. “Musk said that Tesla is willing to deepen investment and cooperation in China and play an active role in promoting U.S.-China economic and trade exchanges.”
Conspicuous by its absence is any sign of Musk criticizing China.
The Tesla/X/SpaceX chief has been vocal about alleged censorship and wrongdoing in democracies such as Brazil, Germany, and Britain. But he never-to-rarely talks about China, which is a dictatorship that routinely censors people and imposes mass imprisonment of the Uyghurs, Muslim Chinese who live in the Northeast of the country.
We don’t know why Musk is so shy about China — but it is well-known that Tesla’s largest production facility is in Shanghai, China, and he needs the government’s approval to keep it open.
All of this is a complete reversal of Trump’s historic dislike of TikTok and China. In 2020, Trump (in his first term in the White House) regarded TikTok as a national security threat and signed an executive order banning the app by forcing the sale of its U.S. business.
The reversal is also surprising because of what we are not seeing: During the coronavirus pandemic, Trump repeatedly blamed China for the outbreak and often said the name of the country with a derisory tone.
In his inauguration speech, he again singled out Chinese influence over the Panama Canal as a reason for the U.S. to perhaps intervene with force over the shipping route: "we’re taking it back," he said.
But aside from that, Trump appears to be happy to now be doing business with China.
This is what he posted on Truth Social three days ago: “I just spoke to Chairman Xi Jinping of China. The call was a very good one for both China and the U.S.A. It is my expectation that we will solve many problems together, and starting immediately. We discussed balancing Trade, Fentanyl, TikTok, and many other subjects. President Xi and I will do everything possible to make the World more peaceful and safe!”
Both Musk and Trump’s transition and inauguration committees were sent multiple messages requesting comment.
