Testing year ahead for Sino-US ties
Strategic ambiguity is a tried and tested diplomatic stance. It translates well into Chinese thinking. After all, classical thinkers from Sun Zi to Han Fei over two millenniums ago talked of the importance of hiding your intentions, sitting straddling two postures, always maximizing your strategic space.
US President Donald Trump, however, has introduced a new concept: strategic schizophrenia. One moment he is according Chinese President Xi Jinping the status of "a good guy", the next he is threatening trade war, and slapping conditions on Chinese investment coming to the United States. One day he welcomes Chinese companies Alibaba and Huawei to set up more projects across the US, the next he is tweeting that China needs to do more to resolve the Democratic People's Republic of Korea issue or it will come across as a "lame duck".
Whatever other faults he is perceived to have, Trump has so far managed to mark up at least a few achievements. His mercurial position has seemingly necessitated some additional action from China on the DPRK, with the trade links temporarily closed down in early December and a new cap on oil exports. Allowing this small neighbor to use sentiment and historic links to blight China's great mission to be a strong, powerful nation by 2021 by antagonizing the US would be inconceivable. We will see in 2018 how the DPRK issue plays out.
