Perhaps the greatest legacy of President Donald Trump’s first term was ending the debate about whether China would be a cooperative power or competitor.

In hindsight, it appears naive that any Republican or Democrat would believe that China wanted to do anything other than overthrow the post-World War II U.S.-led democratic international order. President Bill Clinton’s State Department allowed Chinese officials onto aircraft carriers to learn about their operations and sold satellite technology to Beijing; President George W. Bush offered the Chinese communists advanced aircraft parts and sophisticated composites, even as Chinese hackers stole plans for stealth bombers and advanced avionics. Just as Qatar today buys influence among universities, think tanks, and lobbyists, so too did China purchase an army of influencers to downplay its malign ambitions. Whether standing up to Huawei and TikTok, or ending U.S. investment in Chinese military front companies, Trump sought to calibrate U.S. policy to reality rather than wishful thinking.

In 2017, Trump’s team revived the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue to help contain Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific. On July 10, 2020, the

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