The News
US President-elect Donald Trump’s group of China advisers is shaping up to be a team of rivals.
Trump said he would nominate David Perdue, a businessman and former US senator from Georgia, as his ambassador to China. While Perdue’s rhetoric on China in the Senate skewed hawkish, his record as a businessman suggests he “could serve as a pragmatic voice on China policy,” The Wall Street Journal writes. That may put him at odds with members of Trump’s team who want to take a more aggressive approach to Beijing, like secretary of state pick Marco Rubio and trade adviser Peter Navarro.
Meanwhile, Trump’s choice for treasury and commerce secretaries — Scott Bessent and Howard Lutnick, respectively — “have not expressed strong animus toward China” and have not strongly advocated for the universal tariffs Trump has threatened to impose on the country, according to The New York Times.