A group of 15 national organizations from across the political spectrum is urging President Trump to reduce military tensions with China by reversing the US’s shift away from the policy of strategic ambiguity concerning Taiwan and reaffirming the “One China” policy as he engages with Beijing in trade negotiations.
“For decades, the One China framework — recognizing the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal government of China while maintaining robust, informal ties with Taiwan — helped prevent war in the Taiwan Strait,” the coalition, which includes Antiwar.com, said in a letter to the president.
The letter points to shifts away from the policy over the years, including President Biden’s repeated pledges to defend Taiwan if China attacks and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s provocative trip to Taipei in 2022. It also points to the current Trump administration’s claims that China poses an “imminent” threat to Taiwan and the deployment of new missile systems to Japan.
“These steps may be described by some in Washington as ‘deterrence,’ but in practice they heighten a classic security dilemma: each side’s moves to ostensibly prevent war look like preparations for war to the other, spurring further militarization and hardening positions — at the bargaining table as well as in the Strait,” the groups wrote.
The coalition argues that moving away from escalation and reaffirming the One China policy will lead to an economic deal with China that is more likely to benefit Americans. “By contrast, abandoning or hollowing out One China imposes heavy costs on the American people that have never been debated or approved transparently or democratically,” the coalition said.
Erik Sperling, a former congressional staffer and executive director of Just Foreign Policy, told Antiwar.com that China hawks have been hiding the economic cost to Americans that comes with increasing tensions with China. “There was never any public debate, much less democratic agreement, on the Beltway decision to move towards military confrontation with our top trading partner,” Sperling said.
The coalition has urged President Trump to take these three steps as he engages in negotiations with Beijing:
- Publicly and credibly reaffirm the One China policy and a commitment to peaceful resolution;
- Reduce unnecessary military signaling and freeze steps that erode strategic ambiguity; and
- Leverage that de-escalation to seek tangible economic improvements — lower tariffs, predictable access, and safeguards for critical inputs — that support American workers and communities.
Dan McKnight, an Afghan war veteran and Chairman of Bring Our Troops Home, criticized the push in Washington toward the so-called “pivot” to Asia. “[W]hat this country sorely needs is a ‘pivot to America,’ restoring domestic sovereignty over our own borders rather than micromanaging the far side of the Pacific,” he said.
Jake Werner, director of the East Asia Program at the Quincy Institute, said collapsing US-China relations have “significantly eroded the tacit agreement to put off resolution of Taiwan’s status indefinitely” and warned that escalations over Taiwan risk putting the US and China in an open conflict.
“President Trump has a chance for a breakthrough agreement with China, but will have to rein in aggressive elements in his administration to get there,” Werner added.
Scott Horton, Director of the Libertarian Institute and Editorial Director of Antiwar.com, noted that robust US-China trade ties make conflict less likely and warned against provoking a conflict over Taiwan. “As the great free market economist Frederick Bastiat is said to have advised, ‘Where goods do not cross borders, soldiers will.’ In other words, the greater the economic interdependence between private businesses in our nation and theirs, the greater incentive our governments will have to remain committed to peace over the long term,” Horton said.
Economists say that approaches to China that foster diplomacy are necessary in light of the economic realities in the country. “China’s economy is already far larger than ours and growing much more rapidly. Anyone who thinks competition with China will be a replay of the Cold War with the Soviet Union is badly mistaken. That Cold War was a huge drain on our economy, but a Cold War with China would be a far bigger one,” said Dean Baker, Senior Economist and co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. “We have to look to ways to work with China in ways that are mutually beneficial.”
The 15 groups that signed the letter include:
- American Friends Service Committee
- Antiwar.com
- Bring Our Troops Home
- Demand Progress Education Fund
- Friends Committee on National Legislation
- Just Foreign Policy
- Justice is Global
- Libertarian Institute
- Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
- Pax Christi USA
- Peace Action
- Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft
- ReThinking Foreign Policy
- RootsAction
- Women Cross DMZ
- World BEYOND War
