Unintended Consequences.

• Author: Lo, C.
• Position: Lo

President Trump's "America First" approach has increasingly been seen by China as hostility to its ascent in the global system. On the one hand, this could create a benign unintended consequence for China by rallying more domestic support for President Xi's structural rebalancing efforts. On the other hand, China's hardliners could hijack this hostile perception and push for defending national security and reversing the opening-up policy.

The risk to the world is that an aggressive U.S. foreign...