What the Donroe Doctrine Could Mean for China’s Economic Statecraft

China is weighing its foreign policy options in response to a hypothetical second Trump administration's aggressive "Donroe Doctrine." Beijing's core goals remain regime security and regional influence, which it pursues by trying to split U.S. alliances. One strategy involves using economic statecraft to contrast its consistency with American capriciousness, offering deals to countries in Europe and the Persian Gulf to pull them away from Washington. A more ambitious approach would be to seek a grand bargain with the U.S., encouraging an American retreat from East Asia in exchange for concessions. This would leverage China's economic diplomacy to disrupt U.S. alliance coordination and undermine American interests in the Indo-Pacific.