Some Trump Officials Take Harder Actions on China During Pandemic

Some top Trump administration officials are moving to take a more aggressive stand against China on economic, diplomatic and scientific issues at the heart of the relationship between the world’s two superpowers, further fraying ties. The bitter information war over the virus has become a core part of the competition, but the Trump administration’s efforts to counter China have sharpened across the board. That is partly in response to what administration officials say are China’s own aggressive moves, including the pushing of anti-America disinformation worldwide. Trump’s announcement on electrical equipment appeared to be another attempt to constrain China. He declared a national emergency and ordered the energy secretary to ban the import of foreign equipment for power plants and transmission systems. In April, several agencies asked the Federal Communications Commission to ban China Telecom Americas from domestic networks. That overlaps with a global campaign by the administration to undermine efforts by Chinese companies, notably Huawei, to develop next-generation 5G communications networks. Taken together, the moves in the power and telecommunications industries amount to the most far-reaching by any administration to strip Chinese equipment and services out of critical American infrastructure.