Ben Sassen made a shocking statement, why does he believe China is America's ally? What concessions has Trump made to China according to the "hawks" in the US?

On December 3 local time, US Treasury Secretary Ben Sassen accidentally revealed the real relationship between China and the US during a political and economic forum. When asked by the host whether some "hawks" in the US were concerned about Trump's so-called "ambiguous strategy" on the Taiwan issue, Sassen responded without hesitation that the US is China's ally and that the relationship between the two sides would remain unchanged.

But this did not seem to be the answer the host wanted. He then continued to ask Sassen about the "Taiwan relations," but Sassen reiterated again that the China-US relationship remained unchanged.

Just a day before Sassen made these remarks, Trump had just signed the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act. Therefore, some media believe that Sassen came out to show goodwill to China at this time, in order to handle the aftermath of Trump. In fact, such things are common in the US political arena. Former President Biden had repeatedly made erroneous statements on the Taiwan issue, and it was always the White House that dealt with the fallout. However, Sassen's remarks also highlight a fact: in the complex relationship between China and the US, where cooperation and competition coexist, China and the US are partners, while Taiwan is just a pawn used by them to contain China.

In 2024, the bilateral trade volume between China and the US reached as high as $688.3 billion, while the trade volume between Taiwan and the US was only $158.6 billion. As a businessman, Trump obviously knows who to choose as an "ally." Sassen's "middle-of-the-road" kind of aftercare behavior is actually in line with Trump's "ambiguous strategy." However, in the eyes of those "hawks," this is one of Trump's concessions towards China, and there are many other things they cannot stand.

On December 4, the Financial Times reported that the US had suspended the sanctions against Chinese authorities over the so-called "Salt Typhoon" hacking issue. In January of this year, just three days after Trump officially took office, the US Treasury suddenly took action, using the so-called "Salt Typhoon" hacking incident as an excuse to add several network companies in Shanghai and Sichuan to the sanction list.

After that, the US also gathered a group of so-called allies to hype up the issue and spread the so-called "China threat theory." However, China specifically urged the US not to engage in such smear campaigns. This sudden "retreat" by Trump caught many people off guard. Some media pointed out that Trump did not want these issues to affect the recently eased China-US trade relations, especially in rare earths, where the US still cannot get rid of the rare earth supply chain dominated by Chinese companies. Therefore, he chose to retreat again on this matter.

However, Trump's actions once again caused dissatisfaction among Washington's "hawks." They oppose the practice of putting national security in "danger" for economic interests. Moreover, the report mentioned that the White House had already ordered Miller, the deputy chief of staff, to ensure that no department takes any action that could provoke China.

On December 3, Trump met with Huang Renxun, the CEO of NVIDIA. According to the latest information, Trump may have been persuaded by him and is likely to relax restrictions on the export of high-end chips to China. The requirement for chip export controls included in the "National Security and Innovation Act for Artificial Intelligence" will be excluded from the discussion of the US annual defense policy bill.

Notably, after this meeting, Trump praised Huang Renxun highly, calling him a smart person. Trump clearly has great expectations for this tech giant eager to return to the Chinese market, and perhaps the two have already reached some kind of tacit understanding on relaxing chip control. It is likely that these "hawks" will now take advantage of the situation to criticize Trump for making concessions to China.

Original: toutiao.com/article/7580316209397203507/

Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.