The rise of transactional unilateral diplomacy—most visibly associated with U.S. President Donald Trump—has exposed structural vulnerabilities in the alliance system.
[I]f China can lead by example in helping to maintain or even reshape the international order, it will succeed in filling the void left by the United States.
Trump’s threat is purely economic, employing the power of coercion and open blackmail, to keep a ‘servant’ perpetually under subjugation from attaining economic independence.