This is CBSI on the world. I'm John Batchel with Mary Kissel, my colleague.

She is an executive vice president, Stevens Incorporated, former senior advisor to the Secretary of State.

Before that, many years in Asia for the Wall Street Journal editorial board.

We go now to Beijing, to the opaque, forbidden city, and ask the question, a second Trump

administration. What I remember from the first term, Mary, was Mr. Trump serving chocolate

cake to Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago and telling him he just unleashed cruise missiles at Syria.

I believe that that would be a moment that Xi Jinping remembers.

So what are you expecting, given the threats and the provocations

and the war exercises underway in the Taiwan Strait

and the South China Sea along the Philippine coast

for Mr. Trump in the second term?

I think President Trump woke up America and the world to the threat from the Chinese Communist Party.

It was one of the signature achievements of his administration, just as a foundational point.

His approach to Beijing was to insist on fairness and reciprocity in all areas, trade, diplomatic relations,

involvement in international institutions, et cetera.

You can just go right down the list.

I think he would return to that approach.

I think the team would also work to solidify and further expand the alliances

that we have formed in the region through the quad, which was revivified in the first Trump term,

in August, which was started in the Biden administration. I think there will be a lot of focus on that.

But most importantly, John, I think a Trump victory signals the return of a strong America,

of a president who is not afraid to use military force, who never takes it off the table,

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