Assessing the Trump administration foreign policy towards China and the DPRK: changes, lessons learned, and future outlook

Abstract

This paper reviews and examines the main drivers and events in U.S. foreign policy towards the
People’s Republic of China (China) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) since
the inception of the Trump administration. The article makes a direct comparison between the D. Trump
administration and its immediate predecessor, the B. Obama Administration. We look at how U.S Foreign
policy towards these two Asian countries is, under Trump, framed by a reliance on personalism and
power politics on part of the current U.S administration. The paper makes an assessment of how practical
issues with both China (trade, geopolitics in Asia-Pacific), and North Korea (nuclear weapons, sanctions,
human rights) have evolved over the last three years, presenting hypothesis for future scenarios in
either the case of a Trump re-election, or a change of leadership in the White House.
Key words: North Korea, DPRK, US foreign policy, Trump, China, government, presidential election,
administration, power politics, denuclearization.