The two great powers in the first half of the 21st century, and probably also into its second, the United States and China, have diametrically opposed visions of foreign policy.
Before New Year’s Eve, US President Donald Trump ordered a military attack on Venezuela and the arrest of former Venezuelan president Nicholas Maduro and his wife. The two of them were immediately flown to New York City where they will face charges of drug-smuggling.
Trump was interviewed by four New York Times reporters on 7 January, with the resulting interview being published in the paper on the 9th. It coincided with an announcement that the American administration has decided to withdraw from 66 international organisations in a very serious blow to multilateralism.
“On topic after topic, President Trump made clear that he would be the arbiter of any limits to his authority not international law or treaties,” the reporters wrote. At the same time New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote in the paper on 8 January telling the people of Venezuela that “if you didn’t know, Trump came to liberate your oil, not your people” and not to restore “democracy” in Venezuela.
If we take the positions of the Trump administration concerning both Venezuela and Greenland into consideration, the conclusion would be that one of its top priorities is to exercise control over oil and rare-earth minerals, which are found in Venezuela and Greenland. However, this should also be seen as a means to contain China by depriving it of sources of oil, namely Venezuela under Maduro, and turning the tide on its growing presence in Latin America.
The tough position that the Trump administration adopted early last year against the government of Panama could also be understood in the same framework, for China had been investing in the Panama Canal in a way that did not sit well with US officials in Trump’s orbit.
As far as the future of Greenland is concerned, there is no doubt that Trump has been adamant in calling for its annexation by the United States. A few days ago, he insisted that it is essential to the national security of the United States. This could be the start of a serious confrontation in the not-too-distant future between the United States, on the one hand, and both China and Russia, on the other.
If I was asked to sum up the essence of American foreign policy during the next three years of the second Trump administration, I would say that it will be nothing short of a throwback to the imperialist policies of the “age of empires” in the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries. And that this will lead to the establishment of opposing spheres of influence with China and Russia.
In contrast to the assertive policies of the Trump administration over the last 12 months, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi stressed in a lecture he gave in Beijing in December that China has been engaging with the United States in order to seek cooperation and address differences through consultation and dialogue.
He referred to the summit meeting between Trump and his Chinese counterpart, President Xi Jinping, in Busan, South Korea, last October. He said that this had demonstrated that mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and “win-win cooperation is key to the stability and development of relations between China and the United States” and the “prosperity” of the world as a whole.
He went as far as to warn that what he termed “heavy-handed tactics” do not work, probably referring to those of the Trump administration. From the Chinese point of view, the China-US relationship is one of the most consequential in the world today, and the strategic choices of the two countries will shape the course of world history.
I could not agree more.
This year, Trump will pay an official visit to China at the invitation of the Chinese president, probably in April, and the Chinese president, according to Trump, will visit the United States in the last quarter of the year.
Let us hope that the two US-Chinese summits already scheduled for 2026 will take place and will lead to a meeting of minds between the two men on how to work together for the cause of international peace, security, and multilateralism.
But I would not bet on how willing Trump will be to meet President Xi half-way along the road.
The writer is former assistant foreign minister.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 15 January, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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