During the dislocations caused by the imposition of tariffs on long-time U.S. allies like Canada and countless others, a pivot towards pressuring Ukraine while appeasing Russia, demonizing the democratic alliance of the European Union, and saving all its ire for democratic leaders while cozying up to authoritarians, defenders of the Trump Administration have often claimed this is all part of confronting China. While such a claim was once believable given Trump’s first-term actions, it is no longer credible.
In what is increasingly seen as a surrender to China in service to short-term profit, the U.S. President has approved the sale of Nvidia’s H200 AI chips to China:
President Donald Trump on Monday said Nvidia will be allowed to ship its H200 artificial intelligence chips to “approved customers” in China and elsewhere, on the condition that the U.S. gets a 25% cut.
Chinese President Xi Jinping “responded positively” to the proposal, Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
The policy “will support American Jobs, strengthen U.S. Manufacturing, and benefit American Taxpayers,” Trump wrote.
“The Department of Commerce is finalizing the details, and the same approach will apply to AMD, Intel, and other GREAT American Companies,” he added in the post.
The move is facing significant criticism:
“Right now, China is far behind the United States in chips that power the AI race.
Because the H200s are far better than what China can produce domestically, both in capability and scale, @nvidia selling these chips to China could help it catch up to America in total compute.
Publicly available analysis indicates that the H200 provides 32% more processing power and 50% more memory bandwidth than China’s best chip. The CCP will use these highly advanced chips to strengthen its military capabilities and totalitarian surveillance.
Finally, Nvidia should be under no illusions – China will rip off its technology, mass produce it themselves, and seek to end Nvidia as a competitor. That is China’s playbook and it is using it in every critical industry.”
“Ending the ban on powerful AI chips to China will backfire, costing America more than we gain financially. By selling the very tools China needs to out-compete us, we undermine our own national security.”
If Trump were serious about confronting China, approving the sale of these chips is the last thing he would do. And yet, here we are.
This makes a mockery of the idea that he’s pressuring Canada and the EU to be part of some effort to confront China. Rather, Trump’s foreign policy and worldview are clearly more about trying to align the U.S. with the authoritarian states of Russia and China, weakening the liberal democratic European Union, weakening liberal democratic Canada, and then carving the world up. Thus, Trump is weakening the U.S. commitment to Taiwan, pushing Japan – rather than China – to tone down its rhetoric, pressuring Ukraine to make concessions to Russia while demanding nothing of Russia, pulling back on U.S. efforts to promote democracy and human rights, and erasing any ethical distinction between authoritarian regimes and democracies.
This is why Canada should – while remaining respectful and focused on mutually-beneficial deals with the United States – continue to deepen ties with the European Union, United Kingdom, India, Japan, South Korea, and other democracies to reduce our economic and military reliance on the U.S. We must remain true to our values, even if the U.S. is – at least temporarily – moving in a different direction.
Spencer Fernando
Image – YouTube
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