Chinese President Xi Jinping was the only head of the state of a big country who was officially invited by Trump on his inauguration on January 20. The others were far right heads like Giorgia Meloni of Italy, Javier Milei of Argentina and Victor Orban of Hungary. They are all known as strong Trump supporters. No head from any other big ally of USA in Europe was invited. In fact, the tradition has always been not to invite foreign leaders at U.S. President’s oath taking ceremony, but Trump broke the rules this time in inviting a few close foreign heads

 

Chinese President Xi Jinping could not attend but he sent his vice president Han Zheng who not only attended but had detailed political and business discussions with the U.S. vice president J D Vance on a range of issues including balancing of trade, regional stability and scientific cooperation. He had separate talks with the U.S. businessmen about new investments in China. Tesla CEO Elon Musk also took part. The Chinese vice president was the only political figure on the day of inauguration who moved like a VVIP and was greeted by both the Trump advisers and the attending tech billionaires.

 

Xi Jing ping on his part had talks with Trump on January 17-three days before inauguration about a range of issues. Trump also indicated to have a meeting shortly to discuss the lines of collaboration. It was a bonhomie all through. That was reflected in the policy announcements on January 20 when Trump announced his intention to impose 25 per cent tariff on Canada and Mexico from February 1 this year but refrained from imposing 60 per cent tariff on Chinese imports which was the main plank of his campaign in the presidential elections.

 

Trump also delayed the action against the Chinese platform TikTok by cancelling the Biden regime’s order for by giving it 75 more days for finding a solution. TikTok went dark last week but started operations again from Monday. Elon Musk has always been against any action against TikTok. He wants to control TikTok through his friends as the Chinese company can survive in US market by changing its equity structure in favour of a US holding up to 50 per cent. It is in Trump and Elon Musk’s interest to allow the highly popular TikTok in US market and control it from behind. It is simply business decision of Trump, nothing to do with his wider political relationship with China.

 

As against this wooing of China, how is Trump treating Russia and President Vladimir Putin? He talked of ending the war in Ukraine and offered to meet President Putin for that. But he used highly derogatory words about Putin after becoming the President for the second term. While Putin was cordial in commenting that Trump showed courage in his campaign and won a convincing victory in the elections, Trump blasted Putin soon after by saying Putin is destroying Russia by waging war in Ukraine. ‘Russia is bigger, they have more soldiers to lose but that’s no way to run a country’. This is insulting for President Putin who has welcomed a meeting with Trump to stop the war in Ukraine.

 

Why this dual approach towards China and Russia by Trump? This is a part of the new geopolitical strategy of Donald Trump to divide the latest bonhomie between China and Russia through their strategic allies agreement concluded last year. Both the leaders President Xi Jing ping and President Putin agreed to cooperate in dealing with the global challenges including dealing with the US policies. Trump wants to give a long rope to Xi Jinping taking into account America’s long term interests, mainly business but at the same time, he wants to contain Russia with firm hand which is economically weaker compared to China.

 

This new geopolitics of Trump in its second term also been noted by the Chinese policy makers. In fact just after Trump’s blast against President Putin, the Russian President spoke to the Chinese President and discussed the global situation in the light of Trump’s comments and announcements after inauguration. The Chinese media reported that Xi and Putin pledged to work together to cope with uncertainties in the external environment.

 

Chinese media said that both leaders expressed their readiness to build relations with the U.S. on a mutually beneficial and respectful basis if Trump team shows reciprocal interest in this. The need for continuing the strategic alliance between Russia and China to meet the challenge from Trump is more crucial for Russia. Russia is aware of the transactionalist approach of the American President but in this area, China has the capacity to offer more to the USA which Russia has not. President Putin needs Xi Jing ping more rather than Xi needs him.

 

Trump analysts are saying that the new President in his second term is making all efforts to make a grand combine of the business interests of his family as also oligarch friends with his vision of foreign policy of the U.S. government.. Behind every political move, there is a link of business interests. For instance, Trump really tried hard to bring about Israel-Hamas ceasefire before January 20, but at the same time, the President spoke of Gaza truce in the context of the huge opportunities for redevelopment that Gaza offers. On January 20 itself Trump said that Gaza is a great place, facing sea, beautiful, so many things can be done. So many things mean redevelopment and the involvement of the U.S. real estate companies.

 

Just look at the coincidence. Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and close confidant, on Wednesday doubled his stake in an Israeli financial firm that stands to gain from turbocharging Israeli settlements in Palestine — just before the announcement of a cease-fire deal that Kushner may have helped advise on.

 

Now, amid the potential wind-down of Israel’s war in Gaza, Trump’s former top Middle East adviser and son in law is poised to benefit from expanding settlement efforts in Palestinian territories under Israeli occupation, which are illegal under international law and are driving mounting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

 

On Wednesday, hours before the cease-fire deal was formally announced, Israeli regulators approved a deal that gave Kushner nearly 10 percent ownership in Phoenix Financial Ltd, a major Israeli finance and insurance firm, making him the company’s largest shareholder.

 

Affinity Partners, Kushner’s private equity firm that is backed by a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and the source of several Senate investigations, first invested in Phoenix Financial back in July, acquiring a 4.95 percent stake in the company. At the time, Affinity proposed to double that share if regulators gave the green light. This week, they did.

 

This is a clear case showing the evolving nature of Trump’s foreign policy based on business interests. Trump has similar interests in mind regarding the framing of U.S. relationship with China. Trump‘s son now looks after the real estate empire of Trump Family. The group had drawn up earlier mega plans for expanding in China in the first term of Trump. Now in this term, Trump and his billionaire friends including Elon Musk are planning big to enter the ever expanding Chinese market. That strategy has to be fitted within the policies to be pursued in respect of China.

 

Trump wants to get a good deal from China on reciprocal basis. For the businessmen, market and final returns determine the choice. It has nothing to do with ideology, morals or Americanism. China is the focus area of US administration. Xi Jinping knows that, Putin also. Now the million dollar question is whether Trump can delink Xi Jing ping from Putin and opt for a duopoly in world affairs. Alternatively will Xi Jing ping stick to alliance with Putin and fight Trump policies jointly? The coming months will show in which side the wind is blowing. (IPA Service)