U.S. Gunboat Diplomacy Will Only Embolden China

U.S. Gunboat Diplomacy Will Only Embolden China

Trump’s aggression in Latin America has given a powerful boost to Beijing in the Pacific.

Trump's silhouette is shown as he stands on a platform above a group of people. October 28, 2025, 5:41 PM Comment icon View Comments ( )

Trump’s Second Term

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In recent decades, as China adopted a sharply muscular approach to the Pacific Ocean, other countries began to sound the alarm, decrying Beijing’s pushy new attitude toward a region full of much smaller and weaker countries.

Although China seemed to be adopting a bygone and largely discredited maritime strategy employed a century earlier by Western powers, many of its tactics were novel. As it pressed legally and historically dubious claims to outright own