Trump rewrites US foreign policy on the fly, By Stephen Collinson, CNN


Washington (CNN)Donald Trump is not even President yet, but he's already turning US foreign policy on two of the biggest challenges to American power -- China and Russia -- on its head.

In just five weeks as President-elect, Trump has given the world a taste of what Americans know already after a tumultuous political year: He is unpredictable, doesn't play by the usual rules and will chart an idiosyncratic course.
Nowhere is this clearer than the nascent Trump administration's evolving policy on Russia and China, which is emerging from on-the-fly comments, tweets from the President-elect himself, and a controversial potential pick for secretary of state.

Already, the President-elect appears to be bent on pulling off a full reversal of Obama administration policy towards one historic rival and a rising one.

After initially seeking to reset relations with Russia, President Barack Obama's team moved gradually to a position of hostility towards the Kremlin once Vladimir Putin returned to the presidency -- especially after his annexation of Crimea in 2014.

But Obama sought to manage the highly delicate relationship with China with as little confrontation as possible, using the protocol-heavy formulations that have endured for 40 years. The policy was tested by President Xi Jinping's increasingly assertive and nationalistic leadership style and Beijing's aggressive pursuit of territorial claims in the South and East China Seas. But it also resulted in Beijing and Washington agreeing to join the Paris climate accord.

Trump has deliberately escalated a showdown with China -- calling into question the bedrock principles that have governed US relations with Beijing. He appears ready to use the "One China" policy that has ensured no open conflict between the US and China over nationalist Taiwan as leverage.

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