China hawk to steer Trump’s national security

Michael Waltz, a Republican congressman from Florida, will be President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for national security advisor– a position in which he is likely to play an outsized role in shaping China policy.

Waltz, 50, has long been hawkish on Beijing.

A former Green Beret who served in Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa, he won several Bronze Stars, including two for valor, for his service. Waltz then worked in policy at the Pentagon and served as an advisor to former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney.

In 2018, he was elected to Congress and became known as one of its most hardline members on China. He serves on the House Foreign Affairs, Armed Services and Intelligence Committees. Waltz has also been on the House China Task Force, which examines how the U.S. can best compete with China.

He has called for additional support for Taiwan, saying on X in May 2023 that the U.S. should start “arming Taiwan NOW before it’s too late.” In addition, he’s demanded that China put an end to human rights abuses in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and called for the U.S. to boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Waltz used to feel frustrated by the deferential manner shown by another Republican president, George W. Bush, in the White House Situation Room.

In his 2014 book, Warrior Diplomat: A Green Beret’s Battles from Washington to Afghanistan, he wrote of sitting in during a tense videoconference with then-President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and lamenting Bush’s failure to be firmer.

“Unfortunately, really sticking it to Karzai was not Bush’s style,” Waltz wrote.

The atmosphere in the second Trump White House will be dramatically different. Waltz will move to the front of the Situation Room. And Trump, known for “sticking it to” any number of people, will have his own style.

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Yet Waltz‘s uncompromising views could also create tension with Trump, despite the President-elect signalling that he will be tough on China says June Teufel Dreyer of the University of Miami Coral’ and author of China’s Political System: Modernization and Tradition.

Waltz “is distrustful of the People’s Republic of China and its motives,” she says. “He does not believe in the hype that we can work together in peace and friendship.”

Trump has threatened to slap tariffs on Chinese goods and sought confrontation with Beijing over intellectual property, technology and other economic issues. Those efforts are likely to continue when he takes office.

But at the same time, he has expressed admiration for the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping. He has called Xi a “brilliant guy” and praised him for his success at becoming “president for life.”

Teufel Dreyer says that Trump may decide at some point to take a more deferential approach to Xi, and this could cause a rift between Trump and his advisor. “Waltz is not a shrinking violet. He’s willing to speak his mind,” she says. “He’s not going to back down.”

The unpredictable nature of the White House has far-reaching implications. So does the track record of the incoming national security advisor and his hawkish views.

“There will be efforts to crack down on the bad behavior of China – how they are ripping off American goods, as well as the spying—that’s going to be top of mind for Waltz,” predicts Brett Bruen, a former director of global engagement on the National Security Council in the Obama White House.

“If I’m sitting in the Chinese foreign ministry office, these are worrying signs.”

Edited by Boer Deng and Abby Seiff