China Has Been Building Influence for Years. How Will Trump Respond?

WSJ What’s News

The Wall Street Journal

News, Daily News

4.1 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 9 March 2025

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

While China has spent the past 12 years growing its friend circle through its $1 trillion Belt and Road infrastructure program, the U.S. has struggled to come up with a comprehensive response. Could President Trump’s more aggressive approach to diplomacy mean Beijing will meet greater resistance, or will it open more doors for Xi Jinping? In the final episode of our three-part series, “Building Influence,” WSJ reporter Vera Bergengruen, Harvard Kennedy School’s Rana Mitter and the Council on Foreign Relations’ David Sacks discuss how the U.S. has tried to push back on Beijing's expanding footprint so far, and former Trump administration officials J. Peter Pham and David Malpass weigh in on how the president could counter China. Daniel Bach hosts. Check out the full series, or catch up on the first and second parts. Further Reading: How China Capitalized on U.S. Indifference in Latin America How the U.S. Is Derailing China’s Influence in Africa Why Trump Sees a Chinese Threat at the Panama Canal, and Locals Don’t A New Chinese Megaport in South America Is Rattling the U.S. How Much the U.S. Spent on Foreign Aid—and Where It Went Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:32.1	China is operating the Panama Canal, and we didn't give it to China.
0:37.1	We gave it to Panama, and we're taking it
0:39.7	back. During his first term as President, Donald Trump changed American policy toward China by framing
0:49.6	it as the top economic and security threat facing the United States.
1:03.0	Then, to start his second term in January, he used his inauguration speech to pinpoint where he would launch a new challenge against that perceived threat.
1:08.5	Panama, where China had been building influence through its Belt and Road Initiative,
1:11.4	the trillion-dollar infrastructure lending program Beijing is used to plant its flag in more than 150 countries. Trump's vow to seize back the canal
1:18.4	and push out China is part of a broader and still evolving approach to counter Beijing in places
1:24.5	where a lack of U.S. presence or interest has allowed a new partner to move in.
1:30.1	I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal, and in today's final episode of our What's News Sunday series, Building Influence,
1:36.9	my colleague Daniel Bach will be looking at what the U.S. has done to respond to Belt and Road,
1:42.2	and whether Trump's early actions in office could signal
1:45.2	a new, more aggressive approach.
1:52.6	China's involved with the Panama Canal. They won't be for long. And that's the way it has to be.
1:58.9	Marker just got back, as you know, he's in the process.
2:02.4	In the early days of Donald Trump's second term, he dispatched America's top diplomat,
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