Donald Trump Is Recruiting A Team Of China Hawks. So Why Is Beijing Relieved?

With the expected appointments of Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Mike Waltz to cabinet positions, President-elect Donald Trump is putting together what some China hawks call a tough-on-China "dream team."

- Lingling Wei

Both lawmakers are harsh China critics. If confirmed, Rubio would be the first sitting secretary of state under Beijing sanctions and banned from traveling to China. Waltz, asked to be Trump's national security adviser, is one of the most vocal China critics in Congress. Both men are likely to be central to Chinese leader Xi Jinping's fears of a rise in tensions under Trump.

Still, from Beijing's perspective, it could have been worse.

People who consult with senior Chinese officials say that for now at least, Beijing is relieved that several Republicans considered particular threats by the Communist Party, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, aren't in the mix.

"The cabinet choices are viewed as bad by China," said Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center, a Washington think tank. "But for now, there appears to be still room for dialogue." Sun said that if Trump had picked people seen as directly threatening the Communist Party's core interests and its hold on power, "then that room for dialogue would be completely gone, from China's point of view."

In a speech in the summer of 2020, Pompeo called on the Chinese people to work with the U.S. to change the party's behavior. Later, one passage from Pompeo's memoir, "Never Give an Inch," in which he called on the U.S. to grant full diplomatic recognition to Taiwan, enraged Xi as the book made the rounds in Beijing in early 2023, people familiar with the matter have said. China has repeatedly warned the U.S. not to meddle over Taiwan, which it considers its own territory.

Another Republican China is especially wary of is Robert O'Brien, Trump's former national security adviser. O'Brien has indicated that the U.S. should try to bring Russia's war in Ukraine to an end and then attempt to peel Moscow away from Beijing.