11. Competitions and Coalitions: An Emerging US Domestic Nationalist Consensus, Executive Branch Prerogatives, and the Taiwan Strait Tensions

The heightening of US-PRC strategic competitions at the international structural level has given rise to an increasingly vocal and influential nationalist coalition, comprised of economic protectionists, security hawks, and American firsters that unite both Democrats and Republicans across bipartisan lines in the US executive and legislative branches. From both the Trump and Biden administrations, we’ve seen their emerging consensus—targeted at Beijing’s enduring state-driven and unfair economic practices, autocratic governance, human rights abuses, and coercive external behaviors—to harden Washington’s pushback on China while championing Taiwan’s democratic resilience, high-tech strength, and socio-economic vitality. This chapter focuses on the growing convergence among the White House and the US Congress in waking up to the reality that years of engagement with the PRC hasn’t changed Beijing’s authoritarian outlook, and it also assesses the changes and continuities in their perceptions and approaches toward the US One-China/strategic ambiguity policy framework amid a more perilous and uncertain Taiwan Strait. Yet, the executive branch’s backing for Taipei isn’t without limitations to avoid a total rupture of US-Chinese relations.