Sino-US Competition and Trump 2.0: Power Transition, Economic Statecraft, and Great-Power Strategies

Abstract

The article explores Sino-US relations in the second Trump administration, and it focuses on the strategies pursued by both powers to rise to the top (China) and to stay at the top (US). The international power structure is undergoing a change. There is a raging debate about China trying to supplant the existing hegemon (the US), and the US is trying to maintain its sole superpower status. This article aims to examine the change in the global economic and political structure and the policies pursued by President Trump in his second administration (2025-2028) and the countermeasures taken by China. It argues that China is trying to modernise its military, to be technologically self-sufficient, and to expand its influence to non-Western territories as a reaction to the U.S. tariffs and technology restrictions and the formation of alliances that have created an environment that fosters great-power competition rather than cooperation. The article delves deep into the economic, military, and technological dimensions of this competition. Theoretically, this article employs the power transition and coercive economic diplomacy frameworks to explain some of the key challenges, such as the supply-chain bifurcation, undersea naval rivalry, and semiconductor embargos that sour relations between the US and China. This article contends that collaboration between the US and China is imperative for tackling global challenges such as climate change, uncontrolled immigration, and raging violent conflicts—both within and between states.