Donald Trump has revealed a national security strategy with a heavy emphasis on what his administration portrays as an existential economic competition with China.
In a speech launching it on Monday the US president also made clear he had only one outcome in mind. “We are declaring that America is in the game and America is going to win,” he said.
Parse the clues in the new strategy, however, and it looks like the recipe for a potentially damaging trade war between the world’s two largest economies, rather than a game. Yet also in there are messages meant to assuage the concerns of those who fear that Mr Trump is out to blow up the international order.