This Is the Man Trump Described as ‘The Leading Authority on China’
U.S. President Donald Trump gave a shout-out Wednesday to “the leading authority on China,” sparking a flurry of Google searches as viewers raced to identify him.
“If you look at Mr. Pillsbury, the leading authority on China,” Trump told a press conference in New York Wednesday, “he was saying China has total respect for Donald Trump and Donald Trump’s very, very large brain.”
Trump was referring to Michael Pillsbury, a long-time China hand who authored the 2015 book, “The Hundred Year Marathon: China’s Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower.”
Pillsbury is director of the Center on Chinese Strategy at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington. During the Reagan administration, he was an assistant undersecretary of defense for policy planning. He is a frequent visitor to China as well as military conferences such as the annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. Pillsbury also advised Trump’s transition team.