President-elect Donald Trump's choice of Alex Wong as deputy national security advisor brings another advocate for a hardline approach toward China into the next administration.
Wong, who served as deputy special representative for North Korea during Trump's first term, was involved in setting up Trump's summits with that country's leader, Kim Jong Un. "Alex also led the State Department's efforts to implement the Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy," Trump said when announcing Wong's appointment.
The addition of Wong follows Trump's selection of other prominent China hawks, including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) as his secretary of state nominee and Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) as national security advisor.
In an October 2023 op-ed published by Washington, D.C.-based think tank the Hudson Institute, Wong described China as a nation whose rise was in large part fueled by exploiting the liberal international order.
"It is instead, more threateningly, dependent on the abuse of the liberal order for continued survival," Wong wrote. He cited intellectual property theft, "coerced international political acquiescence," repression of minorities domestically, and the "actualization of territorial claims" as being relied on by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to legitimatize its rule.
Wong also pointed to U.S. efforts to enforce maritime law in the Indo-Pacific and leverage its military to "maintain its access to the Indo-Pacific region and peace across the Taiwan Strait," which he noted are viewed by Beijing as deliberate efforts to contain China and violate its "territorial integrity."
"The CCP will react stridently to U.S. countermoves and accuse us of undermining Chinese society. That's not a reason to halt the pursuit of our policies," Wong argued. He warned that the U.S. should prepare itself for "a level of tension, regional destabilization, and—yes—possible conflict that we have not seen since the end of World War II."
Newsweek reached out to the Chinese foreign ministry with a written request for comment.
Wong is a vocal supporter of Taiwan, the self-governed democracy that Beijing claims as its territory and has pledged to someday bring into the fold—through force if necessary. "We aim to strengthen our ties with the Taiwan people and to bolster Taiwan's ability to defend its democracy," he told the American Chamber of Commerce during a 2018 visit to the island.
The trip, condemned by Beijing, came shortly after Trump signed the Taiwan Travel Act into law, which encouraged high-level visits between U.S. and Taiwanese officials.
"Mr. Wong's being named to Trump's National Security Council can only be seen as beneficial to Taiwan's visibility and interests in the new administration," Sean King, senior vice-president of New York business advisory firm Park Strategies, told Newsweek.
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