It is an unfair comparison. Reagan was President between 1981–1988 when China was nowhere near as economically powerful as they are today. Not even close. He also didn’t have to deal with the folly of previous presidents who had granted Beijing Most Favoured Nations (MFN) status. China was not a trading superpower nor was the US so overly reliant on China as a supply line source. In addition China did not hold vast amounts of US debt. If anything Japan was more of an economic concern for him and this did indeed influence his thinking.
China in the 1980s was a political sideshow from an American point of view. On a foreign policy level they could be used to drive a wedge against the Soviet Union and like Nixon he continued the strategy. It made sense. Cordiality helped.
However when it came to the great game of international power politics Reagan’s focus was on Moscow. This is not the case with Trump. The reality is a lot different today. China has to a certain degree taken over the power vacuum vacated by the Soviet Union.
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