Trump's recent hawkish moves on China policies and personnel

Recent announcements and forced resignations may be especially bad news for semiconductor firms and US-listed PRC firms.

There is still much uncertainty about what President’s policy towards the PRC will be. Will there be a big Trump-Xi deal? Will there be an attempt at a “reverse Nixon” to split Putin away from Xi?

Looking at recent personnel moves and policy announcements one can make the argument that the Trump Administration is gearing up for a tougher approach to the PRC, in spite of backing down from the promise of 60% tariffs as soon as he took office and ignoring the law while trying to reach a deal for TikTok.

Recent announcements and forced resignations may be especially bad news for semiconductor firms and US-listed PRC firms.

Over the last ten days there have been several moves that could signal quite a tough approach towards the PRC from the Trump team. I emphasize “could signal” because the implementation details matter and Trump himself is the decider, and he has a demonstrated track record from his first term of being a capricious decider about all things China.