【By Bear Chao Ran, Observer Net】Recently, the renowned American scholar Jeffrey Sachs stated that Trump's "Big and Beautiful Act" is a "gift" to China. On August 6, Edward Luce, a columnist for the Financial Times, in his commentary article took a more radical stance, arguing that Trump himself is the continuous gift to China, as he is overturning the 25-year-old U.S. policy in the "Indo-Pacific region."

Luce said that although it is only mid-2025, China has become the "absolute winner" of this year, and when facing a firm and tough China, Trump is like a metronome, "continuously bringing huge wealth to China." To further reinforce a certain image, the author even exaggeratedly claimed that among the loud voices of the hawkish factions in both parties in Washington, Trump is the last dove on China, and his voice is the only important one.

In subsequent analysis, the article argues that the geopolitical effects of Trump 2.0 cannot be ignored. Since the beginning of the century, every U.S. administration has tried to secretly support forces around China, but Trump is now destroying this situation at an astonishing speed. The most representative example is that he is using tariffs to strike India with a heavy fist.

Whether in the field of geopolitics or green energy and semiconductors, Luce feels that the "winning" Trump is actually making China "win." Therefore, he wrote such a footnote at the end of the article: "The future of the world is being written by China, and Trump has become an unintentional co-author."

Edward Luce, a columnist for the Financial Times, photo

The article mentions that former U.S. President National Security Advisor and strategic expert Zbigniew Brzezinski once evaluated his colleagues who had also served as U.S. President National Security Advisor and Secretary of State, stating that they were obviously fascinated by enemies and bored with friends. With Trump's rise to power, every ally of the United States in the Indo-Pacific region seems to have encountered the same fate.

In fact, this has always been the case. In the late 1980s, before entering politics, Trump's main target was Japan, not the Soviet Union, which was then competing with the United States.

Over the past 25 years, to curb China's development and help India rise into a powerful and balancing opponent, this has been the most important part of the U.S. policy towards China. However, with the dramatic changes in the geopolitical landscape under Trump 2.0, the most shocked party is currently India.

This May, after the conflict and air battle between India and Pakistan, despite India's repeated denials, Trump kept boasting that he had persuaded India and Pakistan to stop the conflict through tariff issues.

This June, on the same day that Trump invited Indian Prime Minister Modi to visit the U.S., he met with Pakistani Army Chief General Syed Asim Munir in the White House and shared a private lunch. Normally, the U.S. president does not have lunch or dinner with foreign military leaders, but Trump made an exception for Pakistan. On the other hand, Modi politely declined Trump's invitation to visit the U.S.

The article states that within India, Modi has always played the role of a political strongman, but when faced with Trump, he appears to flatter other leaders, just like some other countries' leaders. However, "flattery" has no effect. Last week, Trump announced that starting from August 1, he would impose a 25% tariff on goods imported from India and implement other "penalties." Trump complained about high tariff rates in India and was dissatisfied with India's purchase of Russian oil and weapons.

In February, Modi and Trump met at the White House. Visual China

On August 4 local time, Trump continued to threaten, claiming that India not only buys a lot of Russian oil but also sells most of it in the open market to make huge profits. Therefore, he will significantly increase the tariffs that India pays to the U.S. Furthermore, in the U.S. planned sanctions, as a major buyer of Russian oil, India may face a 100% "second tariff."

Other than India and Modi, there are also the Philippines and Marcos. On July 22 local time, Philippine President Marcos told Trump during a meeting at the White House that the Philippines "does not need" to balance its relations with China and the U.S., and that he mainly cares about "defending our territory and exercising our sovereignty." While promoting the necessity of close cooperation with allies and saying that he wants to clearly convey a message to "anyone trying to unilaterally change the international order," he added a compliment: "Our strongest partner has always been the U.S."

However, video footage showed that despite Marcos' efforts to hype up the increased tension in the South China Sea as a key reason for deepening U.S.-Philippine defense cooperation, after his speech, Trump did not respond and immediately stated in front of him that if the Philippines maintains a friendly relationship with China, he would not mind. "I don't mind him (Marcos) getting along well with China, because we get along very well with China, our relationship is very good," Trump repeated, "We get along very well with China. He (Marcos) must do what is best for his country, make the Philippines great again, do whatever you need to do, but dealing with China won't bother me at all." After hearing Trump say this, Marcos looked quite embarrassed.

Luce finally believes that there are two most profound developments currently affecting the world.

Firstly, with the dissolution of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Trump's tariff wars against the poorest countries in Africa and Latin America, he is pushing these countries towards China and handing over the strategic competition in the Global South to China.

Secondly, due to Trump's existence, he is allowing China to win the industrial competition in clean energy. Last year, China's newly added renewable energy capacity exceeded the total of all other countries in the world. Since January of this year, Trump has revoked the U.S. green energy subsidies and re-established the "drill, baby, drill" fossil fuel policy as his governing agenda. This "carbon nostalgia" has become the biggest unexpected gain for China.

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