The Obama administration had already started reappraising the wisdom of trying to unilaterally keep engagement functional when along came Trump and his posse of China hawks (such as Peter Navarro, Steve Bannon, and Michael Pillsbury) who had long warned that an increasingly aggressive, autocratic, and well-armed China was both inevitable and a threat to U.S. national interests.
The two countries already are working together behind the scenes. Michael Pillsbury, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute who advises the Trump administration on China, pointed to efforts underway by the American biotechnology companies Inovio Pharmaceuticals, GeoVax and Gilead Sciences to develop a coronavirus treatment in China, some in partnership with Chinese companies.
Hudson Institute analyst Michael Pillsbury, who informally advises Trump on China and trade, said he does not view Trump's stepped up rhetoric about the "Chinese virus" as signaling that the president is ready to dramatically escalate tensions with Beijing.